‘Release the children detained during Diyarbakır Newroz'

* Photo: Umut Ali Adalı

Click to read the article in Turkish

The Child Rights Center of the Diyarbakır Bar Association has released a statement on its social media account and demanded the release of the children detained during the Newroz celebrations in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

Referring to the Newroz celebrations yesterday (March 21), the Diyarbakır Bar has said, "Nearly 100 children who wanted to celebrate the Newroz Feast were unlawfully detained by police. While the accusations related to the Newroz feast celebration are unlawful as per the right to peaceful assembly, just as it is unlawful to keep the children in detention room conditions in violation of the prohibition of ill treatment, the practice that violates their fundamental rights and freedoms must be swiftly abandoned and the children deprived of their freedom must be released".

During the Newroz celebrations yesterday, police officers did not allow people to enter the Newroz celebration site in traditional Kurdish clothes. According to the statement of the Diyarbakır Security Directorate, 298 people were taken into custody during the celebrations.

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(AÖ/SD)