Police raided the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Cizre District Organization building in the morning. Searches in the district building continued until 10 am local time as part of the investigation carried out by the Şırnak Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, which took action after Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu had targeted HDP supporters in the city at the Parliamentary General Assembly.

During the political police raid, all the interior and exterior doors of the party building were smashed with rams, and all the belongings inside the building were scattered around. Photos of the many martyrs the city gave during the 2015-16 curfew were thrown on the floor and smashed.

During the raid, the police also confiscated some digital materials, photographs, Yeni Yaşam and Xwebun newspapers.

Many taken into custody

Simultaneously with the HDP building, many houses were raided in Şırnak centre, Cizre and Silopi. In Cizre, MEBYA-DER Co-chair Serhat Küçük, HDP Cizre executive Naim İnedi, Botan Em and Asya Arslan, Mela Kasım Yiğit, Ali Tunç, Aziz Uygur, Zindan Mulu, Veli Ekren, Diyar Ölmez; In Silopi, Delil Ürek, Tuncay İnal and Nadir Onuk were taken into custody.

No one was taken into custody in Şırnak because the people wanted were not in their homes.

Protest to take place

A statement was read in front of the party building to protest the arrests and raids.

Reacting to the police raid on party buildings, HDP Cizre District Co-chair Zilan Ecevit said: “When we came to our party, all our doors were broken. Even though our doors inside the building were open, they broke them. All items in the building have been scattered around. They smashed the emblems, photographs of Taybet İnan, Asya Yüksel and Mehmet Tunç. They even smashed the HDP emblem. Once again, we see the level of misogyny we are dealing with here.”