Turkish civic groups protest abductions, forced disappearances
Civic groups and legal experts say reports of abduction and forced disappearances of opposition party members are on the rise.
Members of HDP, Turkey’s third largest opposition party, and leftist organizations say they have increasingly becoming targets of abductions in the past two years. Almost all abductees said they were pressed to inform on their organizations, and some said they were heavily tortured.
On Aug. 25, “Someone held me by the arm on the subway and told me that there was an arrest warrant for me," Celalettin Yalcin, a member of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), told Al-Monitor. "They handcuffed me behind my back and put me in a vehicle. I was taken to a house. They tortured me. They attempted to rape me. … They pressured me to become an informant.”
