A branch official of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority city of Muş (Mûş), was only able to read out 20 seconds of her press statement on Saturday before the Turkish police started manhandling her and dragged her away.
The statement was a protest against a recent attack and harassment by police of the HDP head office in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday following a scuffle when some people tried to place a black wreath at the party’s offices.
Three individuals, claiming that their children had been abducted and forced to join the ranks of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said they held the HDP responsible for the alleged ‘abductions’, and tried to place the wreath in protest.
Ayşe Acar Başaran, spokesperson for the Women’s Assembly of the HDP, was threatened during that incident by a police officer who said to her, “I’m going to nail you to a wall!”
In Muş, HDP members who tried to intervene to prevent the police violence against the branch official were detained, only to be released after a short time.
