Turkey continues to tighten the repressive screw against the Kurdish population. In Hakkari, at least ten people were taken into custody on Tuesday. In a concentrated large-scale operation, the police simultaneously stormed several flats in the city centre in the morning and carried out meticulous searches. The operation was conducted under the label "counter-terrorism".

While the detainees are accused of being members of a “terrorist organisation” and of carrying out propaganda for it, the concrete context of the accusations was not disclosed. All those taken into custody, including a woman, are being held at the provincial police headquarters.

The detentions came after a demonstration in the district of Yüksekova on Monday, organised by civil society groups and political parties in protest at the KDP’s attack on the PKK guerrillas in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq).

Kurdish circles fear a new fratricidal conflict provoked by the Turkish state and have staged demonstrations in various cities in recent days. The action in Yüksekova was broken up by the police using tear gas and water cannons, and many were taken into custody. Several MPs of the Green Left Party then initiated a sit-in, but they were also targeted by police. Green Left Party politician Gülderen Varlı, who was sitting on the ground, was mauled by the police. Some youths who retreated to the side streets after the police attack on the demonstration continued their protest.