Some of the HDP leaders that were arrested Friday Parliament member Garo Paylan not among those arrested
ANKARA (Reuters)–Two leaders and at least 13 lawmakers of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were detained early on Friday over reluctance to give testimony for crimes linked to “terrorist propaganda.”Turkish police raided the Ankara house of co-leader Selahattin Demirtas and the house of co-leader Figen Yuksekdag in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, the party’s lawyers told Reuters. A tweet by Garo Palyan’s friend
The Turkish Interior Ministry said detention orders for 13 MPs were issued, but only 11 were detained as two lawmakers were abroad. Lawyers had earlier said 15 MPs were detained.
Turkish police raided the Ankara house of co-leader Selahattin Demirtas and the house of co-leader Figen Yuksekdag in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast, the party’s lawyers told Reuters.
“HDP call international community to react against Erdogan Regime’s coup,” the party said on Twitter, referring to President Tayyip Erdogan.
Police also raided and searched the party’s head office in central Ankara. Television images showed party officials quarreling with police during the raid, and a Reuters witness said many police cars and armed vehicles had closed the entrances to the street of the HDP headquarters.
A group of protesters chanting slogans tried to reach the party offices, but were stopped by police before they could enter the street, a Reuters witness said.
“Very bad news from Turkey. Again. Now HDP members of parliament are being detained,” European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur, Kati Piri, said on Twitter.
A widespread difficulty in reaching social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook as well as messaging app WhatsApp were reported across Turkey after the detentions started at midnight.
HDP is the third largest party in the 550-seat Turkish parliament, with 59 seats. Parliamentarians in Turkey normally enjoy immunity from prosecution, but the pro-Kurdish party’s immunity was lifted earlier this year.
This Turkish rabid barking dog and criminal ayatollah and terrorist-in-chief Er-dog-an, along with his imbecile lapdogs, should be taught a lesson they will never forget. They plotted the fake coup attempt themselves so that they could lift the immunity of government officials, non-Turks in particular, and give themselves total freedom and authority to invent and enact new ad-hoc laws to do whatever they want to rule the country with an iron fist. A thousand years has passed since this blood-thirsty and genocidal Central Asian nomadic and backward peasant Turkish tribe has set foot on the lands of the indigenous people they murdered in cold-blood but they their rotten character has not changed. This is what happens when you govern a land that you take from the natives by force and bloodshed. The filthy leaders of this racist nation, a bunch of wolves in sheep’s clothing, must be given a big dose and a bitter taste of their own medicine. Their actions sure looks like the actions of their former blood-thirsty leaders from a century ago.
This Turkish rabid barking dog and criminal ayatollah and terrorist-in-chief Er-dog-an, along with his imbecile lapdogs, should be taught a lesson they will never forget. They plotted the fake coup attempt themselves so that they could lift the immunity of government officials, non-Turks in particular, and give themselves total freedom and authority to invent and enact new ad-hoc laws to do whatever they want to rule the country with an iron fist. A thousand years has passed since this blood-thirsty and genocidal Central Asian nomadic and backward peasant Turkish tribe has set foot on the lands of the indigenous people they murdered in cold-blood but they their rotten character has not changed. This is what happens when you govern a land that you take from the natives by force and bloodshed. The filthy leaders of this racist nation, a bunch of wolves in sheep’s clothing, must be given a big dose and a bitter taste of their own medicine. Their actions sure looks like the actions of their former blood-thirsty leaders from a century ago.