Turkey detains more than 100 in raids against pro-Kurdish party

World News Rudolph Rodriquez
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The leaders of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) have been detained along with at least ten MPs because of their reluctance to testify for crimes linked to ‘terrorist propaganda’, media reported on Monday.

According to Turkish media, police raids to HDP offices were launched shortly after an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Sunday claimed responsibility for two bombings that killed 38 people and wounded 155 outside İstanbul’s Vodafone Arena soccer stadium in Beşiktaş district.

According to an army statement, Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes against PKK targets in northern Iraq, destroying a headquarters of the militants and surrounding gun positions and shelters.

Approximately 500 police teams, backed by a helicopter and armored vehicles launched the operation in the southern city of Adana and detained 25 HDP officials, said Anadolu.

In addition, counter-terror police teams carried out searches at various addresses in İstanbul, including the party’s main offices in the city and took into custody another 20 HDP officials, including its provincial head, plus 51 people that were detained in the southern city of Mersin and five in the northwestern province of Manisa.

The leaders of the HDP, the second-largest opposition grouping in parliament, have already been put in jail pending trial over alleged links to the PKK.

Ankara accuses the HDP of being an extension of the militant group and the PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.