Hasip Kaplan, lawyer and deputy of Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), accused Turkey of violating international law by arresting the delegation coming from Maxmur in order to support peace-making efforts.

Kaplan emphasized that the arrested people came from a refugee camp supervised by the United Nations and that UN intervention is inevitable.

“26 out of 34 peace delegates came from Maxmur. The UN and Turkish judicial systems are considering them as criminals. It means that 12,000 refugees in Maxmur are terrorists. This kind of mentality helps no one, neither the government nor the peace process. In fact, arrests are a kind of scandal according to international refugee law. I believe that the UN is going to interfere in this scandal. Turkey has disregarded international rules by arresting the refugees from Maxmur,” Kaplan argued.

However, Diyarbakir 5th High Criminal Court asked for jail sentences for 7 other members of Democratic Solution and Peace Group who came from Maxmur. Peace delegates are trailed by accusations of “being members of an illegal organization”, “making propaganda for an illegal organization” and “committing a crime on behalf of an illegal organization without being a member”. DPT members and deputies as well as some NGOs executives and members attended the trial to support peace delegates.