Ayşegül Başar, one of the Halkevi members that made speeches in teahouses across Okmeydanı, Istanbul to protest the Reina massacre, was detained today after being targeted by the Interior Ministry. In the meantime, ESP and SGDF members, who were detained yesterday for leaving cloves at the site of the massacre, will be referred to court today.

After a video of Halkevi members speaking at a teahouse went viral on social media, a person by the name of Veysel Kaçmaz posted the video, saying "Terrorists are inviting people in Okmeydanı to civil war. Stop these traitors" to the Interior Ministry on Twitter. The Ministry replied: "Your request has been directed to anti-terror units. Please inform us wherever you see."

A wave of backlash occurred on social media after the targeting of Halkevi members for expressing their reaction on the massacre, and the ministry deleted the mentioned tweet. Halkevi member Ayşegül Başar, who can be seen in the aforementioned video, was detained this morning and taken to Kulaksız Police Station.

Lawyer Ali Coşkun met with Başar at the police station, and informed ANF that Başar will remain in custody for 5 days. The police informed Coşkun that the aforementioned video is the reason for her detention, but has not given any other information. There is no court decision for the detention and the search, and the prosecutor used the state of emergency decree for Başar’s arrest. Başar’s phone and computer were seized during the house raid this morning.

ESP AND SGDF MEMBERS STILL IN CUSTODY

16 ESP and SGDF members that left cloves at the site of the massacre were also detained yesterday. Law Bureau of the Oppressed lawyers Gülhan Kaya and Sezin Uçar, ETHA editor İsminaz Ergün and HDP Istanbul provincial administrator Volkan Uyar are among the detainees.

The 16 socialists held at Istanbul Police Headquarters used their right to remain silent, and will appear in Çağlayan Court today.