After the "operation" carried out by paramilitary special units of the Turkish police in Nusaybin (Nisêbîn), according to lawyers, all nine people taken into custody were released.

Democratic Regions Party (DBP) executives, Bedia Adıgüzel and Remziye Bayhan, have also been released. However, the criminal department of the district court in the provincial capital Mardin (Mêrdîn) imposed police reporting requirements on the two local politicians and on Bayhan's husband, Mehmet Bayhan. The court also imposed a ban on leaving the country on Mehmet Bayhan.

What happened

On Wednesday night, the apartment of former DPB district chair Bedia Adıgüzel on Sakarya Caddesi in the center of Nusaybin was stormed by paramilitary "police special units for countering terrorism" (PÖH). After the officers had gained access to the apartment, a deadly explosion is said to have occurred. A woman yet to be named, who was said to be a member of the Association of Free Women (YJA Star) - the autonomous women's guerrilla of the PKK - allegedly blew herself up using a hand grenade - apparently to avoid capture. According to the information available, the woman, who was alone in a room in the apartment, had previously been asked to surrender.

After the incident, the so-called anti-terror police carried out numerous raids in Nusaybin and arrested a total of nine people on suspicion of "terrorism". Among them was a family of five who was released on Thursday night. The identity of the fallen guerrilla is still unclear. The PKK has not yet commented on what happened in Nusaybin.

The information available to ANF and the lawyers of those arrested about the events in Bedia Adıgüzel's apartment is in stark contradiction with the information provided by the Turkish Ministry of the Interior. The authorities had spoken of a routine operation to check the identity of a "person with suspicious behavior" during which the alleged guerrilla was "neutralized" after she opened fire on police officers. A review of the woman's documents that had been seized would have revealed that she had planned a "sensational action" in Nusaybin and spied on public facilities for a possible attack.

Not only those arrested rejected this information, but residents also stated that there had been no gunshots heard. Only the sound of a detonation was heard after PÖH officers entered the apartment. Since the weekend, significantly more police and military officers have been patrolling Sakarya Caddesi and adjacent areas than usual.