Turkey: Police detain opposition HDP officials and co-chair of rights group
Turkish police detained three top district officials of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) among 10 people held in an operation targeting Kurdish militants, state media said on Friday, after a court case was opened to close down the HDP.
Separately, Turkey's Human Rights Association (IHD) co-chairman Ozturk Turkdogan was arrested by police at his home, IHD said, prompting human rights groups to call for his release. There was no official statement why he was held.
The IHD said on Twitter its lawyers were seeking information about his case.
A Turkish prosecutor filed a case with the Constitutional Court on Wednesday demanding a ban on the HDP and accusing it of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The move is the culmination of a years-long crackdown against the third largest party in parliament.
The HDP called it a "political coup," Reuters reported.
Police staged simultaneous raids in four districts and among those detained were the two top HDP officials in the Istanbul district of Kagithane and its Besiktas district head, state-owned Anadolu news agency said.
Prosecutors have ordered 12 arrested in total, including former provincial heads of the HDP, it said.
Media reports said Turkdogan was detained as part of those raids. Human Rights Watch Turkey director Emma Sinclair-Webb called for his immediate release on Twitter, addressing the country's foreign and justice ministers.
"In Brussels you talk about dialogue with civil society but the reality at home is dawn raids and arrest of human rights defenders," she said
'Respect the legal processes'
Turkey on Thursday told foreign countries to stay out of its domestic affairs after the US and European Union criticised the bid to shut down the HDP.
"Everyone must wait for the ruling the Constitutional Court will make in this process. Commenting on an ongoing judicial process amounts to intervention in the judiciary," Turkey's foreign ministry said in a statement.
"We call upon those who act inconsistently and attempt to interfere with our internal affairs to respect the legal processes conducted by the independent judiciary."
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that Washington was monitoring the "efforts to dissolve the People’s Democratic Party, a decision that would unduly subvert the will of Turkish voters, further undermine democracy in Turkey, and deny millions of Turkish citizens their chosen representation".
"Unapologetically [moving] towards the end of pluralism. What reaction does Turkey expect now from the European Union? A positive agenda?" said Nacho Sanchez Amor, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey.
Ankara has been a candidate for EU membership, though accession talks have been stalled for years.
European Council President Charles Michel is scheduled to hold a video conference with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen on Friday. EU leaders are then due to discuss strained ties with Turkey at a summit next week.
Erdogan unveiled a "human rights action plan" this month, saying Ankara would strengthen the right to a fair trial and the right of freedom of expression. However, critics say the plan fails to tackle an erosion of human rights in the country.
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