On the eve of the 14 May elections, hundreds of people, including journalists, lawyers, politicians and artists, were detained in 21 cities as part of an investigation carried out by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

Speaking to Mesopotamia New Agency, Bedirhan Sarsılmaz, a member of the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD), called attention to the timing of the operation, which, he said, sought to intimidate the Kurdish people.

Sarsılmaz said: “The recent detentions are part of the oppressive policies implemented against the Kurdish people. The government can continue to implement the policies of repression and fascism as much as it wants, but we, lawyers, will continue to raise our voice and our struggle.”

Another member of the ÖHD, Sinan Zincir, stated that the detentions threatened the security of the elections in Kurdistan and Turkey on May 14.

“The Kurdish people and their reality are resisting in these lands. The Kurdish people are carrying out the biggest and most difficult fight against this system. They are trying to make the Kurdish people pay the price for that,” he said.

Zincir insisted that bar associations, non-governmental organizations and political parties in Turkey should react to the detentions. “If this political genocide operation is not stopped, election security cannot be provided anywhere in Turkey. The government is about to fall down after 21 years in power. For this very reason, the opposition should raise a voice against this crackdown. Therefore, standing by the resisting Kurdish people and those who are fighting for truth, democracy and freedom in these lands is a sine qua non for democracy in Turkey today. Bar Associations and the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB) should raise their voices. If no voice is raised against this crackdown, it will spread all over Turkey.”

Human Rights Association (IHD) Diyarbakır Branch Head Abdullah Zeytun stated that civil rights were being restricted in the country, adding: "The detentions worry us about the atmosphere in which the government wants to go to the polls."

“We have experienced and witnessed for many years the fact that elections are not held under fair conditions in the country and the policies of repression are intensified through various methods during the election process. However, the fact that detainees work in different public realms, that there are many people other than politicians among them and that the investigation and detentions are large-scale makes us think that these operations have ulterior motives that cannot be restricted to elections.”