*Updated at 5:00 pm (CET)
The number of detainees in the police operations against pro-Kurdish parties and institutions in Istanbul has increased to 32.
Turkish police took into custody 17 people during a raid in Istanbul early on Tuesday. Fifteen more people were arrested during the day and there are a total of 39 arrest warrants within the scope of the investigation, Mezopotamya Agency reported.
Those taken into custody included members of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and the People’s Democratic Congress (HDK), an umbrella organisation of left-wing political movements, one of which is the HDP.
Members of the Green Left Party’s youth assembly have also been detained, reported Mezopotamya. The HDP fielded its parliamentary candidates for 14 May elections under the Green Left Party in order to minimise the risks of a possible constitutional court decision to shut down the pro-Kurdish party ahead of elections.
Neither the Turkey’s state news agency nor the pro-government media have yet reported the Istanbul operation.
Since last week, the Turkish authorities have ramped up crackdown on Kurdish politicians, journalists, and lawyers taking part in polling security work, and members of civil society organisations.
On Sunday, the Turkish police detained three parliamentary candidates of the Green Left Party during an operation against the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), part of the Labour and Freedom Alliance, of which the HDP is a member.
This new wave of arrests began last Tuesday with the detention of 128 people and continued on Saturday with a police operation to apprehend 54 suspects.
Similar to last week’s operations, a confidentiality order has been imposed on the case file of Tuesday’s arrests and the detainees will not be allowed to make contact with their lawyers for 24 hours.
