KDP security forces detain DBP politician and activist Musa Çiftçi

A politician from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) has been arrested in Southern Kurdistan. Musa Çiftçi was coming from Sulaymaniyah and was on his way to Hewlêr (Erbil) on Thursday to pick up family members. At a checkpoint in the town of Şeqlawa, a good 45 kilometres northeast of Hewlêr, he was pulled out of the road and taken into custody for no apparent reason. “Since then, we have lost contact. The security forces of the Asayîş have so far not commented on the reasons for the arrest or the whereabouts of Musa Çiftçi,” the HDP representation in Sulaymaniyah said. The HDP representation was extremely concerned about the repressive handling of their members in Hewlêr.

Musa Çiftçi was born in the province of Hakkari in North Kurdistan. Until 2015 he was co-chair of the provincial association of the HDP sister party DBP. A year later he fled to southern Kurdistan with his family to escape the repression of the Turkish state. He was recognized as a refugee by the United Nations and UNHCR. Çiftçi is also chair of the Sulaymaniyah-based Association of Working People from Mesopotamia (Komeleya Karkerên Mezopotamyayê, KKM). Several members of the association have already been deported to Turkey.

People who are politically persecuted in North Kurdistan and who have been recognized as refugees by the United Nations are organized under the umbrella of the KKM. Many of them have been in Turkish custody for years because their legal political activities for the HDP or DBP were criminalized by the judiciary. Some still face long prison sentences under so-called terror charges.

The activists of the KKM are also repeatedly targeted by the security authorities of the KDP – especially since Turkey intensified its military aggression against southern Kurdistan. In 2021, various members of the KKM and thus of the HDP/DBP were arrested on Hewlêr’s orders. At the same time, the association regularly complains about threats and attempts to recruit informers by Turkish security forces in southern Kurdistan. There have also been attacks on club members: in September, Ferhat Barış Kondu was shot in Sulaymaniyah. The 33-year-old, who was born in Siverek and fled Turkey in 2017, survived the attack. Just one day later, Yasin Bulut, a long-time member of the PKK Committee for the Families of the Fallen, was fatally hit by several bullets in the centre of Sulaymaniyah.