A Turkish court has blocked the X account of lawmaker Keskin Bayındır, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the İlke TV news website reported.
Neither the Turkish authorities nor the social media platform has given any explanation for the decision. Bayındır criticized the ban as interference with the will of the people and said it suppresses freedom of thought and expression.
Bayındır announced that he will continue posting on a new account, @KeskinBayindir_ .
Bayındır was detained and later arrested in December 2022 during simultaneous raids on DBP offices and other locations across 10 provinces. He was charged with “membership in an armed terrorist organization,” referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies. After spending three months in jail, he was released pending trial at his first hearing in March 2023.
In May the PKK announced that it would lay down its arms to pursue a democratic struggle to defend the rights of the Kurdish minority, in line with a call by its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan. The Turkish Parliament in August established a special parliamentary commission to oversee the peace efforts. However, Kurdish civil society groups argue that structural reforms safeguarding fundamental rights have yet to be implemented, raising concerns about the sincerity and scope of any efforts at normalization.
