Dozens in Police Custody - 7 Arrests

The cities of Van, Şırnak, Mardin, Muş, Bingöl, Ağrı and Diyarbakır in the pre-dominantly Kurdish region of south-eastern Turkey saw again operations against the Union of Kurdistan Communities Turkey Assembly (KCK/TM), the umbrella organization that includes the armed outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

24 people were taken into police custody on 20 June, five of whom were arrested.

Six people were taken into custody in the course of the operations in Van, among them Selami Özyaşar, Branch Manager of the Education and Science Workers' Union (Eğitim-Sen). A total of 17 people who allegedly participated in press releases made in Şırnak, Mardin, Muş, Bingöl and Ağrı were taken into police custody, five of them were arrested subsequently on charges of "membership of an illegal organization".

In Diyarbakır, Engin Pamuk, editorial manager of the Rojev newspaper, was taken into police custody in the course of a search of his home. The Rojev daily started publishing after the publication of the Azadiya Welat newspaper was suspended for the duration of two weeks, the ninth ban for Azadiya Welat. Journalist Pamuk was released after he gave his statement to the police. Related to earlier arrests, at least nine journalists who were working for the only nation-wide Kurdish daily are currently in prison, three of whom are former editors-in-chief.

In the morning of 20 June, police teams from the Anti-Terror Branch in Van raided the Eğitim-Sen Branch in Van and some offices and private homes. Among the six people taken into police custody were Eğitim-Sen Branch Manager of Van, Özyaşar, and the former Branch Manager, Lezgin Botan. Several CDs and computers were confiscated.

BDP provincial executives in custody

Police and military units raided homes in Şırnak the previous day. They took nine people into police custody, among them the head of the Şırnak head office of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Sıdık Kütler, Ömer Çoban and Yusuf Ecer.

In the Patnos district of Ağrı, Bilgin Halaç, Fesih Yıldız and İsmail Taşdemir were taken into police custody on the grounds of throwing stones to police officers during unrests after a press release regarding ten PKK members who died in the rural area of Uludere (Şırnak).

In Bingöl, three people were taken into custody in the scope of police and gendarmerie raids on private homes four days ago. Nursel Karasu was released after the police took her statement. Tahır Buğur and Edip Kaynar were arrested over alleged "membership of an illegal organization". In Mardin, three children aged between 12 and 14 were taken into custody. (AS/VK)