Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) member Musa Çiftçi, who has been living in Sulaymaniyah for 6 years, was detained by Asayish (Internal Security Forces) affiliated to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) 28 days ago while he was going to the city to pick up his family in Hewler.

Musa Çiftçi, a native of Hakkari, had to immigrate to South Kurdistan about 6 years ago for political reasons. While the farmer was on his way to Hewler to bring his family to Sulaymaniyah, where he lived, he was detained by the KDP Asayish in Sheqlawa.

A week after his detention, it came out that Çiftçi was being held in Gişti Asayish in Hewler. He has been released from custody earlier today.

Musa Çiftçi was born in the province of Hakkari in North Kurdistan. Until 2015 he was co-chair of the provincial association of the HDP’s sister party DBP. A year later he fled to southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) with his family to escape the repression of the Turkish state. He was recognized as a refugee by the United Nations and UNHCR. Çiftçi is also chair of the Sulaymaniyah-based Association of Working People from Mesopotamia (Komeleya Karkerên Mezopotamyayê, KKM). Several members of the association have already been deported to Turkey.

People who are politically persecuted in North Kurdistan and who have been recognized as refugees by the United Nations are organized under the umbrella of the KKM. Many of them have been in Turkish custody for years because their legal political activities for the HDP or DBP were criminalized by the judiciary. Some still face long prison sentences under so-called terror charges.

The activists of the KKM are also repeatedly targeted by the security authorities of the KDP - especially since Turkey intensified its military aggression against southern Kurdistan. In 2021, various members of the KKM and thus of the HDP/DBP were arrested on Hewlêr's orders. At the same time, the association regularly complains about threats and attempts to recruit informers by Turkish security forces in southern Kurdistan. There have also been attacks on club members: in September, Ferhat Barış Kondu was shot in Sulaymaniyah. The 33-year-old, who was born in Siverek and fled Turkey in 2017, survived the attack. Just one day later, Yasin Bulut, a long-time member of the PKK Committee for the Families of the Fallen, was fatally hit by several bullets in the centre of Sulaymaniyah.