Ergüven village was evacuated by Turkish army in 1990s and after 20 years its residents returned to their homes. On Wednesday the village, and 25 different apartments in Batman city centre was raided by Turkish police. 13 men aged between 40 and 90 were detained.

“Those who were detained all are elderly people. Mehmet Vural is 85 years old; Hüseyin Vural, 87; Ramazan Vural, 75; Azaddin Balik, 72; my father [Izzet Yoksul], 90; Semsettin Balik, 40; Ata Celik, 45; Dikan Vural, 45; Halil Vural, 40; and Vafattin Vural, 50. They are 13 people. I am surprised why they didn’t take my 90-year-old mother. We don’t know why they were detained. It was only said that they were detained on grounds of ‘counter terrorism.’ The only thing we know is that” Mehmet Emin Yoksul, son of Izzet Yoksul said.

“50-year-old Vafattin Vural has physical disability. He is not even able to meet his physical needs. I don’t understand why he was taken,” he added.

The Siirt governate released a statement and said that the operations were conducted against “supporters of terrorism”.

According to the statement no weapons or illegal documents were found during the raid but the governorate listed cell phones, sim cards, a binocular and a red-yellow-green shawl as items seized from the “suspects”.

It’s still not clear why so many old people were detained as a Turkish court gave confidentiality order about the case.