🔷International delegation arrested in Turkey over anti-airstrike protest
🔷Members of an international delegation were arrested during a protest against Turkish airstrikes on Syria’s Kurdish-held regions.
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Turkish police have arrested 15 members of an international delegation who participated in a protest against recent Turkish airstrikes on Syria’s Kurdish-held regions.
The police prevented a press statement on Thursday organised to denounce Turkey’s latest aggression on North and East Syria and carried out arrests during the gathering in the Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Şanlıurfa (Riha).
Among those arrested were four members of the Green Left Party (YSP) Youth Council and 15 internationalists from Germany, France and Italy. According to YSP MP Dilan Kunt Ayan, they will be taken to a deportation centre and expelled from the country.
The internationalists arrested in Şanlıurfa were part of a delegation visiting Turkey at the invitation of the YSP Youth Council. The reason for the delegation’s trip is the YSP party congress, which will take place in the Turkish capital Ankara next Sunday. Nine of the delegation members were from Germany, five from Italy and one from France.
Prior to the press statement organised by the YSP, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Regions Party (DBP), the police deployed a large contingent and surrounded the local district association of the HDP, preventing the crowd that had gathered there from moving. The reason given was that the planned press statement would violate a ban on assembly issued by the governor’s office for that specific date.
When those present tried to leave the building, the police used tear gas and batons to push them back. The police were reportedly violent against the internationalists during their arrest. According to Ayan, they were handcuffed behind their backs, dragged several metres across the ground and put into a detention vehicle.
