Turkey arrests HDP officials in party crackdown

Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu (C, front row with a blue mask), a human rights advocate and lawmaker from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and his colleagues pose after the parliament stripped his parliamentary seat, Ankara, Turkey, March 17, 2021.
Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu (C, front row with a blue mask), a human rights advocate and lawmaker from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and his colleagues pose after the parliament stripped his parliamentary seat, Ankara, Turkey, March 17, 2021. - Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images
Al Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East
Al-Monitor Staff

Three Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) officials were detained in Turkey on Friday, local media reported, days after the government moved to dissolve the opposition party.

According to state-run Anadolu News Agency, HDP officials in two Istanbul districts were arrested, and police seized “organizational documents and digital materials” in what the news outlet said was an operation targeting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The group has waged a decadeslong violent insurgency on Turkish soil and is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.

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