HDP members arbitrarily harassed and arrested before the congress

The fourth ordinary congress of the HDP will take place in Ankara on Sunday. Members of the democratic opposition are streaming into the Turkish capital from all parts of the country. The result: arbitrary harassment and arrests.

Turkey's autocratic president Erdoğan’s fear of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is great enough to resort to arbitrary measures against executives, members and supporters of the party.

Tomorrow, Sunday, the fourth ordinary congress of the party will take place in capital Ankara. The AKP government is trying by all means to keep the number of participants as low as possible. These measures include arbitrary arrests, harassment and other repressive measures against party members who have already left for the capital on Saturday.

In the province of Batman in Northern Kurdistan, a rented coach was stopped at a checkpoint set up especially for the HDP at the exit of the province. All passengers were subjected to a criminal record check. Regarding Mehmet Habip Çelebi, a former provincial executive of the HDP's sister party DBP (Party of Democratic Regions), police officers at the checkpoint claimed that an arrest warrant had been issued against him. The local politician was thus arrested and taken back to Batman.

In Van province, the police stopped three buses at once claiming that there was a seizure order. Vahyettin Uca, co-chair of the HDP branch in Muradiye district, stated that the order to confiscate the vehicles had been issued on Friday, two days before Congress. "Pure arbitrariness and nothing but harassment", the politician commented. Meanwhile, the passengers continue their journey towards Ankara on foot until other buses are organised, an activist of the party explained.