Diyarbakır police on Friday detained 18 suspects, including Kurdish politicians, as part of an investigation into the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Former co-chairs of the Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Mehmet Arslan and Gülcihan Şimşek, and a former member of parliament from the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Ayla Akat Ata, were among the detainees.
The suspects are accused of participating in PKK activities, the report indicated, adding that witnesses had testified against them.
Turkish police on Wednesday detained 12 HDP members after intervening in a protest in Ankara.
They were protesting the interior ministry’s practice of removing Kurdish mayors and appointing government trustees to replace them.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has been waging a decades-long insurgency in Turkey’s Southeast.
Turkish Minute