The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (PA OSCE) Human Rights Committee protested the detention of some 300 individuals including dozens of HDP administrators and members in political genocide operations.

“PRE-ELECTION HARRASSMENT AND DETENTIONS MUST END”

President Margareta Kiener Nellen (European Parliament MP, Switzerland), Deputy President Michael Georg Link (European Parliament MP, Germany) and Rapporteur Kyriakos Hadjiyianni (European Parliament MP, Cyprus) issued a written statement and said, “Pre-election harrassment and detentions must end.”
The statement said the following:

“The mass detention and harrassment of political opponents in Turkey must end. Especially before the local elections to be held next year, it is very important for parties and candidates to express their views and qualifications without government pressure. Turkey’s security concerns must not be abused to target the opposition. There are still dozens of municipalities where trustees appointed by the government are in office instead of elected mayors. The upending of voters’ will in this manner is unacceptable. We are calling on the authorities to end such practices.”

“CAN’T BE PREVENTED FROM REMAINING IN OFFICE”

The PA OSCE statement also mentioned the following part of the OSCE Copenhagen Document of 1990: “Candidates who win the necessary amount of votes dictated by the law will be permitted to take office and remain in office until their term is up. In contrary situations their term may be ended in accordance with democratic parliamentary and constitutional procedures as per the law dictates.”