Turkish police raid wedding, detain guests for playing ‘political’ Kurdish songs

Duvar English

Turkish police on July 28 raided weddings in three neighborhoods of the eastern Hakkari province. They detained some musicians, employees of a production company filming the weddings, and some wedding hosts, citing "political songs" as the reason, according to online news outlet Yeni Yaşam.

Those detained, whose exact numbers were unclear, were held at the provincial police department on charges of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization."

Last week, several people were similarly detained in Istanbul, the southern Mersin, and eastern Doğubeyazıt provinces, with at least 18 individuals arrested.

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party Istanbul MP Cengiz Çiçek submitted a parliamentary question to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya regarding the targeting and detention of youths dancing to Kurdish songs in Istanbul.

The deputy questioned the exact reason behind the detention and the identification process that identified the citizens and detained them for dancing to Kurdish songs at various dates and weddings.

Çiçek also asked why the slogan "Bijî Serok Apo," Long Live Leader Apo (the imprisoned leader of the outlawed Workers’ Party of Kurdistan) was criminalized despite multiple rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and the Turkish constitutional court had deemed it not a crime and within the scope of freedom of expression.

The deputy continued, “What is the purpose of sharing specially prepared videos of the detention operations on the social media accounts of the General Directorate of Security?” He questioned whether these videos were prepared at the instruction of the Interior Ministry and pointed out that the detained people’s rights were violated by distributing these images. 

The deputy concluded by asking the ministry whether it would review all Kurdish wedding videos from now on, and assign personnel for this task.