Turkish court arrests HDP provincial co-chairs in Osmaniye

Duvar English

A Turkish court on Nov. 9 arrested the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairs of the southern province of Osmaniye, Mezopotamya news agency reported.

HDP's Osmaniye co-chairs Kadriye Tören and Ali Coşkun were detained in a police raid on Nov. 4 on charges of “being a member of a terrorist organization.” The court officially ordered their arrest on Nov. 9.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government accuse the HDP of having links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), leading to prosecutions of thousands of its members and some leaders.

The former co-leaders of the HDP have both been jailed since 2016 on terrorism charges, with several other prominent members accused of supporting terrorism over what the government says are links to the PKK.

In a recent crackdown on the party, dozens of HDP members, including co-mayors of the eastern province of Kars, were arrested in October over Kobane protests of 2014.

Protesters flooded streets in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast in early October 2014, outraged over the Turkish government's inaction in protecting Syrian Kurds as ISIS besieged Kobane, just across the Syrian border. The protests turned deadly, as members of Turkish Hizbullah also took to the streets.

While Ankara accuses the HDP of inciting violence, the HDP says that it was doing everything it can to prevent bloodshed via being in contact with government officials.

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