While there is no clear information about why the political migrants were detained, a joint statement was made by the HDP Sulaymaniyah Representation Office and the Mesopotamia Workers Association against the operations and detentions.

The statement said: “Suleymaniyah security forces raided the Mesopotamia Workers' Association at around 3pm on Thursday and detained our members Meşruk Çiftçi, Ersoy Yılmaz, Şefik Yildirim and Hasan Kaçar, who were in the institution. In addition, the shops of our friend Mehmet Söyler and another friend called Murat were raided and the two were also taken into custody. Our friend Servet Akdeniz was also taken into custody after his house was raided.

All of our friends had to come to South Kurdistan because of the pressures from the Turkish state and the political lawsuits filed against them. All of our detained friends have been imprisoned in Turkey and have been sentenced there. After they came to the Kurdistan Region, they constantly faced threats and pressures from the Turkish state and MIT (Turkish Secret Services).

We still do not know for what reason they have been taken into custody. Our friends Hasan Kaçar, Ersoy Yılmaz and Murat Turak suffer from serious illnesses. Due to the torture and bad conditions they were subjected to in the prisons of the Turkish state, they have chronic diseases and they need to take some medicine regularly.

We call on the Sulaymaniyah administration, the Sulaymaniyah Public Security and the UN Representation to release our friends. We also declare that the Sulaymaniyah Public Security is responsible for the lives and health of our ill friends.

If our friends are not released immediately, we will act to oppose the repression of our institutions and members.”