Two leading members of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), Deniz Aktaş and Ebru Yiğit, were taken into custody in the western Turkish metropolis of Istanbul. The raid on a flat in the Gazi district on Thursday night was carried out by a "special counter-terrorism unit". A total of four people were detained and taken to the counter-terrorism headquarters of the Istanbul Police Directorate.

A secrecy order was imposed on the investigation file, as well as a 24-hour ban on lawyers. The detainees were thus denied access to legal counsel and their relatives were not informed about the arrest. The women detainees were also subjected to a degrading naked search at the police station in the presence of male officers.

Deniz Aktaş and Ebru Yiğit, who are also members of the Executive Council of the Socialist Women's Council, and the other two detainees, Mert Unay and Nurcan Güllübudak, were referred to court late Sunday evening with a demand for their arrest.

All the four detainees were remanded in custody for alleged “membership in a terrorist organization”.

ESP - member party of the HDP

ESP became known especially with the Gezi protests in 2013. One of its founding members is the imprisoned former co-chair of the HDP, Figen Yüksekdağ. In 2014, ESP joined the HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party), which functions as an umbrella party. On 20 July 2015, a bomb attack was carried out on its youth organisation, the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations. The ISIS attack in Suruç in the province of Urfa killed 33 people, mostly young people. The activists had gathered at the Amara cultural centre and wanted to hold a press conference before leaving for Kobanê. The planned trip to northern Syria was supposed to be an act of solidarity. The young people wanted to take children's toys and humanitarian aid supplies to the ISIS-destroyed city. 104 other people were injured in the attack.