After Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced a ‘Human Rights Action Plan’ on Tuesday, 79-year-old Meryem Soylu and 71-year-old Hatun Aslan were arrested. They had previously been detained on 27 February as part of a Diyarbakır (Amed) operation targeting the Association of Solidarity with Families Who Lost Their Relatives in the Cradle of Civilizations (MEBYA-DER), Yeni Yaşam reports.
Fourteen people had been held in custody since a house raid on 27 February in Diyarbakır. MEBYA-DER executives Hatun Aslan and Meryem Soylu were among them.
After statements were made at the Prosecutor’s Office, the two elderly women were sent to court with a demand to arrest them. They were arrested on charges of “being a member of a terrorist organisation”.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor’s office extended the detention of the remaining people in custody for 24 hours. All those detained are being held in Diyarbakır Police Headquarters.
The names of the people who are still being held in custody are as follows:
MEBYA-DER co-chairs Şeyhmus Karadağ and Yüksel Almas, MEBYA-DER members and executives Zeki Dağ and Ayşe Çelikbilek, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Diyarbakır provincial executive Hatice Güneş, DBP Bağlar District executive Tahir Gül, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Kayapınar District co-chair Hanım Altındağ, HDP Sur District Organisation former executive Murat Üzgün, HDP Provincial former executive Hafiz Işık and the former director of MEYA-DER (Mesopotamia Assistance and Solidarity for Families with Lost Relatives, closed by a decree in law) Muzaffer Ulaş.
