A former co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), Emine Ayna, has been released on probation by the court she was referred to for arrest on Friday. Ayna was detained on Thursday in her Diyarbakır home.
Ayna, who had quit politics, was detained as part of an ongoing crackdown against Kurdish politicians.
On March 20, Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US-based international nongovernmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights, said an ongoing crackdown on democratically elected Kurdish officials in Turkey not only violates their rights to political association and participation and freedom of expression, but also interferes with the rights of constituents who voted for them and whom they serve while in office.
The Turkish government has jailed 13 members of the pro-Kurdish democratic opposition in Parliament on terrorism charges and arrested a total of 84 co-mayors from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) in the past couple of months while seizing the administration of 54 municipalities across southern Turkey. (SCF with turkishminute.com) March 24, 2017