Hayrettin Demir, who lived in France with a work permit, was detained in a raid against his home in Marseilles, France.

Hayrettin Demir’s home was raided late at night on Tuesday and there is a demand for his extradition to Turkey.

Demir, who holds a work permit in France, was taken to Paris from Marseilles after he was detained. He is expected to face a judge in Paris, while the Demir family is worried.

Demir will face a judge for an approved sentence against him, and says his life will be in danger if he is extradited.

A campaign of pressure against Kurds has started in France. A temporary injunction was placed on the bank accounts and properties of members and administrators of the Democratic Kurdish Council (CDK-F).

KURDISH REPRESENTATIVES’ ACCOUNTS ON HOLD

The developments came before and after French Foreign Minister Jean Yves le Drian met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara.

The Kurdish Council issued a statement and said, “There is no doubt that Paris has made grand deals with Ankara over the refugee Kurdish activists in France yet again.”

RAIDS IN FIVE COUNTRIES

According to Belgian media, two Kurdish men were detained in house raids in five countries with allegations of recruitment for the PKK. The raids happened in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland. The news that two Kurdish men were detained is based on a statement by the Eurojust, Holland-based EU judicial cooperation unit. The operations were carried out as part of an investigation that was launched in 2017 in Liege.

As part of the anti-Kurdish policies put in place in France in cooperation with the Turkish state between 2006 and 2013, hundreds of Kurds were detained. The detentions and death threats of today have once again exacerbated concerns.

DEATH THREATS

CDK-F issued a statement on Monday and announced that their co-chairs and spokespersons received death threats from the MIT. There was a bounty placed on the co-chair’s head, of 1.5 million Turkish liras, and the spokesperson was threatened via a message from the MIT.

CDK-F said: “Did France learn nothing from the policies of pressure against Kurds between 2006 and 2013? These destructive policies that a vile cooperation with Turkish authorities dominated resulted in the execution of three Kurdish activist women in the middle of Paris on January 9, 2013 by the MIT.”

CDK-F said the injunctions placed by the French government on their members would encourage the MIT’s “death commandos” placed in France: “Our administrators are at risk, and if their bodily integrity or life comes to harm, the onus will be on the French government and Jean-Yves Le Drian in particular.”