22 people were taken into police custody in an operation related to the Union of Kurdish Communities (KCK) in the Kurdish-majority province of Diyarbakır in south-eastern Turkey. The KCK was founded by Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (KCK).
Several private homes were raided in the morning of 11 January. Bağlar (Diyarbakır) Deputy Mayor Osman Kaya is among the 22 persons taken into custody.
Other people taken into police custody are for example Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Provincial Chairmen M. Yaşar Tanrıkulu and Sinan Topdemir; BDP Bağlar District Managers M. Şafi Sert and Mehmet Akıcı; Bağlar Municipality Council Members Emek Yazbaşı, Selam Taş and Raziye Taşkıran; Provincial General Assembly Member Şehmus İnci; BDP member A. Selam Demirkıran; BDP former Provincial Executives Sevda Batgi, Müşeher Ölçer, A. Rezak Doğri, Zülfikar Odabaşı, Bahar Filiz and Yılmaz Kaplan; Kurdish Language Research and Development Association (KURDİ-DER) Executive Rıfat Öztürk; Müşeher Ülker; A. Rezak Doğri.
One day earlier, on 10 January, 20 people were taken into police custody in Silopi (south-eastern province of Şırnak) in the course of another KCK operation.
On 7 January in Istanbul, 15 suspects were taken into custody after raids on private homes in the districts of Başakşehir, Küçükçekmece and Bağcılar. Eleven of them were arrested, three of whom were under age. The detainees stand accused of having been involved in 32 illegal activities. (NV)
