Turkey arrests opposition leaders, including the 'Kurdish Obama'
Source: The Guardian and agencies
Two co-leaders and at least 11 MPs from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) have been detained because of their reluctance to give testimony for crimes linked to “terrorist propaganda”.
Turkish police raided the Ankara home of co-leader Selahattin Demirtas and the house of co-leader Figen Yuksekdag in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish south-east, early on Friday the party’s lawyers told Reuters.
At least 11 other HDP parliamentarians were also detained, lawyers said, in a major escalation of the government’s crackdown on its opponents in the wake of the failed coup on 15 July. Raids also took place in the south-eastern cities of Diyarbakir, Van and Bingol.
Demirtas – a charismatic leader dubbed the “Kurdish Obama” by some admirers – and Yuksekdag had been targeted by several separate probes over the last months but this is the first time that either has been detained.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/04/turkey-arrests-pro-kurdish-party-leaders-mps
Staff and agencies
Friday 4 November 2016 00.14 GMT