As many as 96 people were taken into custody on February 3 in an operation targeting the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), Socialist Women’s Council (SKM), Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF), Etkin News Agency (ETHA), Shipbuilding and Maritime Transport, Stevedoring and Warehousing Workers’ Union (Limter-İş, DİSK), Polen Ecology Collective, and Foundation for Science, Education, Aesthetics, Culture and Arts Studies (BEKSAV).
While procedures are still ongoing for 40 detainees in police custody, the other 56 were referred to the Istanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan on Thursday with a demand for their arrest.
The Criminal Court of Peace ruled for the imprisonment of 47 people, including ESP Co-Chair Murat Çepni, SKM Spokesperson Tanya Kara, SGDF Co-Chair Berfin Polat and ETHA employees Nadiye Gürbüz, Pınar Gayıp and Elif Bayburt. The other 9 detainees were released under judicial control.
Speaking inside the courthouse after the ruling, ESP Co-Chair Murat Çepni said: “Those who make these decisions should know this well; you may take ESP members hostage through these rulings, but you can never subdue the ESP’s ideas or its politics. This people’s struggle for freedom, democracy, and socialism will continue. The ESP stands at the very center of this struggle. There is no pessimism, no despair.”