Former HDP deputy arrested on terror charges

Kurdish politician Behçet Yıldırım has been arrested, accused of being a member of a “terrorist organization” – meaning the PKK. The accusations are based, among other things, on the 62-year-old Yıldırım’s alleged participation in funerals of those killed in the Kurdish liberation struggle. It is unclear whether there is further evidence against the politician, as the investigation file is classified.

Behçet Yıldırım is a doctor and sat as a Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy for the Adıyaman constituency in Turkey’s National Assembly between 2015 and 2018. In the middle of last week, he was taken away after a police raid on his home in Adıyaman and taken to the anti-terror department of the local provincial gendarmerie (military police) command. Held in custody since, he has been remanded in custody and transferred to the T-type prison in Urfa province.

The HDP’s Justice and Human Rights Commission condemned Yıldırım’s arrest, saying, “The arrest of former MP Behçet Yıldırım is part of the unbroken chain of violations of applicable law as part of the political campaign of destruction against the opposition. The government’s putschist methods will not be accepted at any time. No arrest will break our determination to fight.”

Over 10,000 HDP members arrested in six years

On July 24, 2015, the dialogue process between the Turkish state and the Kurdish liberation movement was finally ended with the bombing of the Qandil mountains by the Turkish Air Force. Since then, the AKP/MHP government has again escalated the war against the Kurds and their political representation. Over 23,000 HDP members have been taken into custody in the last six years, and more than half ended up in prison. Hardly a day goes by in Turkey without arrests or detentions of opposition figures.