15 Kurdish political activists, all women, were detained in house raids in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority province of Batman (Elîh) on Tuesday.
The elected co-mayors of the city of Batman, the district of Kozluk (Hezo), and the town of Bekirhan are among the detained.
The police broke down the doors of houses and forced themselves in during the raids, and scattered items around in house searches.
Pervin Buldan, the co-chair of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), condemned the arrests in her parliamentary group speech.
A deputy co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Ümit Dede, also reacted to arrests, saying, “We’ll continue to build a ‘new life’ in the leadership of women.”
“The ruling bloc of the Justice and Development Part and Nationalist Movement Party is the biggest threat to democracy with their militaristic policies,” said Dede.