Green Left Party Group chair, Meral Danış Beştaş said at a press conference attended by DTK co-chair Berdan Öztürk, DBP co-chairs Saliha Aydeniz and Keskin Bayındır, Kurdistan Communist Party chair Sinan Çiftyürek, PIA chair Mehmet Kamaç that today at 7pm a number of actions will be held in various cities to protest the attack suffered by Green Left Party Urfa MP Ömer Öcalan on Saturday in Urfa, where he was attending a memorial for Bazo Yılmaz (67).

Yılmaz died in Urfa No. 2 T Type Closed Prison on 18 August 2022.

Beştaş said: “We call on the Speaker of the Assembly to stand against this attack. Today, we will simultaneously protest the attack against our MP Ömer Öcalan all over Turkey.

We call on everyone to stand up against these abuses.”

Beştaş said that the detention of MP Ömer Öcalan was an attempt to kidnap and added: “Our MP was dragged away by masked soldiers, and then taken to the police station. This was a kidnapping attempt. What is done here is unacceptable. Such an attack on a deputy is not something that can be accepted. Urfa has long been a torture center."

Background

A memorial for political prisoner Bazo Yılmaz in Urfa was attacked by Turkish soldiers. Three members of the Green Left Party were taken into custody.

Those taken into custody were the co-spokeswoman of the provincial branch of the Green Left Party, Senem Eriş, activist Enes Rakım from the party’s youth council, and Nuh Mert Turan, who works for MP Ömer Öcalan.

MP Ömer Öcalan was dragged into the vehicle by the soldiers and taken to the police station.