Pro-Kurdish HDP deputy Leyla Zana relaesed by Diyarbakır court

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Ağrı deputy Leyla Zana, who is a prominent figure in Kurdish politics, was released by a Diyarbakır court on judicial probation after she was briefly detained in Diyarbakır on Wednesday.

Zana had served 10 years in prison for speaking Kurdish while taking her parliamentary oath in 1991. She was ultimately released in 2004 and once again became a Parliament member after the June 2011 elections.

According to latest figures, Turkish government has arrested 12 pro-Kurdish Peoples’ HDP deputies, including the party’s co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, 1,473 members of HDP and pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) and also has seized the administration of 63 municipalities since failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

The DBP won 103 municipalities in local elections which were held on 30 March 2014. However, with Turkey has stepped up political pressure on Kurdish politicians in recent months, the gov’t appointed trustees to the management of 69 municipalities, arrested a total of 78 Kurdish co-mayors.

Among the arrested party members, there are 132 local chairs of the party and 757 board members. Meanwhile, pro-Kurdish the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Parliamentary Group Chair, Ahmet Yıldırım, has claimed on Monday that some 9.000 HDP members have been detained and 2500 of them have been arrested in the last 1,5 years. Giving an interview to pro-Kurdish media, Yıldırım said that the attacks on his party have been intensified during the referendum process thanks to the AKP/MHP alliance.

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