A number of people have been detained as a result of an expansive police operation in Istanbul, Ankara, Amed, Hatay and Eskişehir this morning, which targeted executives and members of the ESP and the party's youth organisation SGDF.
A number of people have been detained as a result of an expansive police operation in Istanbul, Ankara, Amed, Hatay and Eskişehir this morning.
The Istanbul-centered operation has targeted executives and members of the ESP (Socialist Party of the Oppressed) and the party's youth organisation SGDF (Federation of Socialist Youth Associations).
Those detained in the operation include ESP General Vice President Fethiye Ok, ESP Amed provincial chair Soner Çiçek, SGDF co-chair Oğuz Yüzgeç, survivor of Suruç massacre Çağdaş Küçükbattal, HDP deputy candidates Burcu Demirbaş and Şerife Erbay.
HDP co-chair Figen Yüksekdağ's press consultant Ece Şimşek was also detained following a police raid in her house earlier today.
The detainees are expected to be taken to Istanbul.
In a written statement condemning the mass detention, ESP said the operation has mainly targeted the youths who survived the Suruç massacre perpetrated by AKP-ISIS. The party said; “The AKP government which tries to cover up the Suruç massacre and ordered secrecy on the case has now detained those whom it couldn't kill.”
Describing the operation as an attempt to intimidate the SGDF members that survived Suruç massacre with injuries, ESP said these detentions constitute a part of the AKP fascism's concept of all-out attack and escalation of war in Kurdistan. ESP said today's operation is a follow-up of the policy that has claimed the life of Tahir Elçi in Amed, women and children in Derik, Silvan and Sur, and Dilan Kortak in her house in Istanbul's Sarıgazi district.
ESP vowed to continue the resistance without ever being intimidated, and called on everyone to step up the struggle in Kurdistan and everywhere else.
