Demonstrations continue across Turkey in protest at the AKP regime’s usurpation of HDP-run metropolitan municipalities of Amed, Mardin and Van through the dismissal of democratically elected mayors and appointment of trustees in their place.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul branch promoted a demonstration at the Freedom Square in Bakırköy district to protest the seizure of municipalities.

Police laid a siege around the square, forcibly removing the demonstrators from the area and threatening to intervene in the event that they did not disperse.

HDP MPs Musa Piroğlu, Züleyha Gülüm and Dilan Dirayet Taşdemir who also joined the demonstration were encircled by the police while journalists were prevented from covering the crackdown.

The crowd protested the arbitrary obstruction of the police chanting slogans.