Members of the HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) Youth Council are being threatened by police in Batman province in order to make them commit informer activities and crimes. This was announced by the Human Rights Association (IHD) on Friday. HDP deputy Necdet Ipekyüz and activists from the Free Women's Movement (TJA) and the Peace Mothers Initiative also attended the rally in Ataturk Park. "Repression and attacks cannot intimidate us. Youth means hope, hope stands tall," read the banner they unfurled here.

As IHD lawyer Mehmet Akif Akin explained, in the first three months of the year six people turned to the association because they were forced to make statements in an irregular manner and were wanted to be recruited as agents with threats. According to the lawyer, those affected were members of the HDP Youth Council who had been approached by people identifying themselves as police officers. At first, a friendly conversation was spoken of. The people concerned, who were in a difficult economic situation, had been offered money, he said. "The people who engaged in conversation and then refused what they wanted are threatened in terms of their family, their jobs, their health and their private lives. Some are threatened with arrest and detention, others with death."

In the process, irregular arrests occurred. In custody, HDP members were threatened that they would be arrested or not left alone for a moment if released. Some were abducted, mistreated, and insulted, said Akin, and added, "Individuals were forced into a car by unknown persons, abducted blindfolded, beaten for days, and released in a remote location."

A young man who contacted the IHD in late February was suggested that stores should be set on fire and that the HDP youth should be blamed.

HDP deputy Necdet Ipekyüz described the incitement to commit a crime as an attempt of provocation, stating, "Batman is a place where many extra-legal executions have taken place. Every step we take is watched by the police. If the police and the prosecutor's office do not act on this, they are committing a crime themselves. We live in a time of increasing drug abuse and high unemployment. These attacks are intended to intimidate the youth."

The rally ended with the slogan "Repression can't intimidate us!".