Bugging devices found in HDP's Istanbul provincial office

Duvar English

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentary group deputy chair Saruhan Oluç has announced that four listening devices (also called “bugs”) had been planted in the party's Istanbul provincial office.

“Who could have planted these? There are two institutions that could have undertaken such a professional work: One of them is the Interior Ministry and its affiliate General Directorate of Security, and the other is MİT [National Intelligence Organization],” Oluç said during a press conference held in the HDP's Istanbul provincial office on Dec. 8.

“We have exposed your illegal works with this concrete evidence. We have so far discovered four listening devices. If we find more, we will also expose them. The HDP is transparent with regards to everything and everyone,” Oluç said, adding that whoever is responsible for this “will give an account before the law.”

Oluç said that the security forces must have planted these bugging devices while conducting a raid at the building. “They have been illegally raiding our provincial buildings. Security forces have been entering our provincial buildings and searching them for long hours without the presence of our provincial executives, neighborhood heads or lawyers. And they are placing these crime weapons during those searches,” he said.

The government has been for many years carrying out a broad crackdown on the HDP, accusing it of having links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Several executives and mayors of the party have been detained and replaced with government-appointed trustees.

The HDP says that the government's actions amount to the rejection of democracy and recognition of the will of the people.

Seven former HDP lawmakers, including former chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, are also in prison.