According to a written statement made by the Istanbul Police Directorate on Saturday (23 July), 43 people were taken into custody because "they organized events in Zeytinburnu/Istanbul that paved the way to provocation and to harming homes, offices and vehicles". The people taken into custody were interrogated at the Anti-Terror Branch Directorate.

Anti-Kurdish tensions occurred in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul last week after 13 soldiers had been killed in armed conflicts in the south-east of the country the previous week.

It was also announced on the website that a further 29 people were taken into police custody in the course of anti-Kurdish riots smouldering in the district since 18 July. Their cases were processed at the Police Branch Directory. According to a statement of the Police Directorate, 29 suspects were caught together with their offensive weapons. It was put forward in the statement that these people were involved in the riots and "demonstrated an aggressive attitude by prompting and prodding on the crowd and disregarding warnings".

Fırat News Agency reported that seven blank firing guns, 56 pieces of cartridge for blank firing weapons, quantities of drugs and many cutting, drilling and other dangerous objects were found during the search of the people who were taken into custody at their offices or homes. (AS/VK)