Turkey has ordered the arrest of 17 people including the co-leader of the main pro-Kurdish political party over opposition to the military’s offensive in Syria, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Friday.
Since the launch of the campaign in north-west Syria’s Afrin nearly three weeks ago, authorities have said they would arrest those who criticise or oppose it. So far, some 600 people have been detained for protests or for social media posts against the offensive.
Anadolu cited the Ankara prosecutor’s office as saying the 17 suspects now facing arrest were accused of seeking to stir street protests and clashes under the guise of opposition to the Afrin offensive.
Among them were Serpil Kemalbay, the co-leader of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), it said. The HDP, parliament’s second-largest opposition party, is the only major political party to oppose the campaign – dubbed Operation Olive Branch – against the Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin.
The party is scheduled to hold its annual congress in Ankara on Sunday.
The HDP’s other co-leader, Selahattin Demirtas, is in jail over alleged links to Kurdish militants and is among many leading members of the party imprisoned on similar charges, which they have denied.
The YPG is designated by Ankara as a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency on Turkish soil in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that Turkey will strip the word ‘Turkish’ from the name of its main medical association after the group publicly opposed the campaign.
4 Comments
Tas
February 9, 2018 at 15:05I would like to know the thoughts of the Turkish Cypriots on this matter as Turkey is doing what you said the Greek Cypriots did yet you fail to stand up to the injustice and ethnic cleansing faced by the Kurds not only in Turkey but in Syria where Turkey has been waging a war illegally there.
Gold51
February 9, 2018 at 15:00Now he’s going to round up all the Kurds living in Turkey…..Probably half the country.
Surprise to see the EU still dealing with this Dictator Erdogan…. Obviously the horrors of WW2 have almost disappeared for Europe and are willing to take a chance for Turkish money.
Louis
February 9, 2018 at 14:24And do you Turks and Tcs still think you live in a Democratic country?
ROC..
February 9, 2018 at 12:47Well Well, yet again Mr Erdolf cleansing anyone that does not agree with him, how can anyone deal with this man is beyond me, Time for another coup I thinks