This file photo shows the co-chairman of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas. (Photo by AF
Turkish authorities have detained two more lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the latest move against party members ahead of a referendum on constitutional amendment.
The HDP’s official spokesman Ayhan Bilgen and another lawmaker representing the eastern province of Kars were taken into custody on Tuesday by a court order before a trial following his arrest by police on Sunday at an Ankara airport, after which he was transferred to the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in the country’s southeast, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
According to the report, Bilgen was detained and held on charges of “membership in an armed terror organization.”
The other prominent HDP lawmaker, identified as the party’s legal expert Meral Danis Bestas, was also taken into custody after being initially arrested at her residence in Diyarbakir.
The party described the arrests in a statement as a bid to prevent the HDP from campaigning against constitutional changes sought by embattled President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following a coup attempt last July and terrorist attacks across the country. The changes are expected to dramatically expand his powers after a referendum planned for April.