Turkey detains journalists, politicians in large-scale operation against HDP

Turkish Minute ^ | February 13, 2019 | TM

[Texas Fossil]

Turkish police on Wednesday carried out raids and took into custody scores of people including journalists working for Kurdish media outlets and members of the Kurdish political movement, specifically the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the Artı Gerçek news website reported.

Encompassing several provinces, the operations targeted local HDP members including provincial co-chairs as well as candidates nominated for the upcoming municipal elections.

The detentions in the province of Kocaeli were announced by HDP Kocaeli deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, who condemned the early morning raids on party members.

Police in İstanbul also detained journalists Salih Turan and Melike Ceyhan, who used to work for Kurdish media outlets.

Ceyhan, a former member of the Mezopotamya news agency, was reportedly taken into custody due to news she reported.

Turan, who used to work for Sputnik Kurdish service, was detained Tuesday on charges of spreading terrorist propaganda on social media, based on news he shared on his account.

He appeared before a court on Wednesday and was arrested for alleged membership in a terrorist group.

The homes of the journalists were searched and their electronic devices seized.

Since a failed coup attempt in July 2016, Turkey has jailed many journalists and HDP members on charges of terrorism.

The HDP was frequently accused of being aligned with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and many of its elected mayors in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast were replaced by government-appointed trustees.

Former HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ have been behind bars since November 2016.

Government figures as well as the pro-government media have been slamming and threatening the HDP as Turkey’s local elections of March 31 draw closer.

[Texas Fossil]

Erdogan strategy? If you cannot beat them at the poles, you jail the opposition politicians and the Journalists.

Is that what the ComDems in the US will resort to?

Are they taking lessons from Turkey?

[Harpotoo]

No from Obunghole of the musscum Brohood!

[Texas Fossil]

Yes, that too.

[House Atreides]

I wonder how soon the real ethnic cleaning and genocide will be unleashed by Erdogan. I know that in some parts of Syria where Kurds have traditionally lived he has already begun ethnic cleansing using his al Qaeda allies.

[tet68]

If you cannot beat them at the poles, you jail the opposition politicians and the Journalists.

Is that what the ComDems in the US will resort to?

Always remember, if they can oust Trump, this is what they
have in mind for us all.

It won’t bother them a bit.

[Texas Fossil]

Yes, absolutely correct.

[Texas Fossil]

Yes, he absolutely used both ISIS and al Qaeda Islamist Terrorists Jihadi’s in Efrin (Afrin). My Egyptian friends sent me a photo of ISIS on the bus and told me privately that there were 3,000 of them. Both al Qaeda and ISIS forces rule, Efrin. Just like ISIS was in Iraq and Syria.

But let me remind you. Every week, there are dead Jihadi’s from the Kurdish Guerrillas who are still there. The numbers are often 10-20. Without Turkey's air support and artillery, the Kurds would wipe the Jihadi's out.