Kurdish female activist detained, two HDP officials arrested in Turkey

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish security forces detained a Kurdish female activist and formally arrested two provincial co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Friday.

The Diyarbakir-based Kurdish-led Free Women Movement (TJA) announced their spokesperson, Ayse Gokkan, was detained during a raid on her house early Friday. It is not clear why she was detained.

“The systematic operations of politicide against Kurdish women is evidence of the fear in the face of our struggle for women’s freedom,” said the movement, adding this is the second time Gokkan has been detained by security forces since July 14.

HDP condemned the detention of the activist, saying she was targeted for her efforts to upend Turkey’s “masculine system.”

“Ayse Gokkan has always been targeted by you due to claims that she, as a Kurdish woman, has been working on changing your rotten masculine system,” tweeted the party’s women’s council.

Separately, formal charges were filed against two HDP officials more than a week after they were detained. Co-chairs of HDP’s provincial office in Diyarbakir, Zeyyat Ceylan and Hulya Alokmen, were charged with “being a member of a terrorist organization,” reported the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya Agency.

They were detained last week along with HDP’s co-chairs in Yenisehir province, Kasim Kaya and Remziye Sizici. All four were brought to court on Friday and Kaya and Sizici were released with conditions. At the time they were detained, state-owned Anadolu Agency reported security forces had found posters of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in related raids.

HDP slammed the court decision to charge Ceylan and Alokmen, claiming their arrests are a “continuation of the vengeful attacks against our party.”

Turkish security forces have conducted regular raids against the HDP in recent years, detaining and arresting scores of its members and officials. Most of them have been charged with terror-related offenses because of alleged links to the PKK.

Nine HDP parliamentarians have been detained since November 2016, according to the latest available party data. At least 30 former HDP officials have also been detained.

The party has also been forced out of most mayoral offices they won in local elections last March. Out of 65 municipalities HDP won, six mayor-elects were prohibited from taking office on the grounds that they had previously been dismissed from their posts by the government. Of the 59 who were permitted to take office, 47 were subsequently dismissed and replaced with trustees appointed by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) majority government.

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