Turkey on arresting spree after Kurdish election gain

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The election high was not over yet when the Turkish police took more 74 people into custody, mostly those who are affiliated with the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). In the June election of this year in Turkey, the BDP gained 36 seats in the Turkish Parliament, almost a 100% increase from the election in 2007.

On June 14th, 39 Kurds were arrested in the districts of Çilek and Uludere. The next day, 5 members of the BDP were arrested in Alanya for “chanting illegal slogans”. On the same day, 20 BDP members were arrested in Batman. Today, 10 Kurds were arrested in house raids in the early morning in the district of Bismil.

The reason for the wave of arrests has not been revealed. This is not the first time that Turkish police arrests members of BDP immediately after election, who is the victor in the election in the southeast Turkey, where mostly the Kurdish population of 20-25 million resides.