As crackdown on pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HDP) and Democratic Regions Party (DBP) continues, a Turkish court on Wednesday issued a detention warrant for HDP deputy Dilek Öcalan for making the “propaganda of a terrorist organization.”
Dilek Öcalan, niece of Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) faces up to five years in jail due to her participation in the funeral of PKK militant, Mehmet Yılmaz, on Feb.23, 2016.
The detention warrant for Öcalan came a day after HDP deputy and party spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen was arrested on terror charges on Tuesday.
Bilgen, along with another HDP deputy Meral Danış Beştaş, was detained on Monday night based on a decision from the Diyarbakır 5th Penal Court of Peace. Beştaş was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday.
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 63 municipalities, arrested a total of 74 Kurdish co-mayors.
Among the arrested party members, there are 132 local chairs of the party and 757 board members. Moreover, the number of party members who have been detained by police has reached to 4.966. (turkishminute.com)
