Police raids took place in many districts of Istanbul, mainly in Başakşehir, Esenyurt, Arnavutköy and Küçükçekmece, as part of an investigation launched by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

At least 17 people, including members and administrators of the Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK), Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and Greens and Left Future Party (Green Left Party) Youth Assembly were detained during the police raids on Tuesday morning.

A 24-hour ban on access to lawyers has been imposed on the detainees who were taken to the Istanbul Police Department on Vatan Street. Since there is a confidentiality order on the file, the reason for the detentions could not be learned.

HUNDREDS OF DETENTIONS A WEEK BEFORE ELECTIONS

The police raids took place less than two weeks before the May 14 elections.

Hundreds of people were detained last week. On April 30, 23 people including ESP Co-Chair Şahin Tümüklü, ETHA news agency editor Nadiye Gürbüz, members of the Socialist Youth Associations Federation  (SGDF), Green Left Party MP candidate Burcu Ayyıldız, Müslüm Koyun and Meryem Yıldırım were detained in Istanbul and Eskişehir based police operations in 8 provinces as part of two separate files.

As part of an investigation launched by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office that targeted 49 people, police raids took place in 15 provinces on April 29. In these police raids, Dicle Müftüoğlu, co-chair of the Dicle Fırat Journalists Association (DFG), Sedat Yılmaz, an editor of the Mesopotamia News Agency (MA) and his wife Selma Yılmaz, and Sedat Yılmaz's sister Filiz Yılmaz were detained in Amed and Istanbul and taken to Ankara.

The detentions came after the Amed-based simultaneous operations that took place in 21 provinces on April 25. Detention warrants had been issued for more than 200 people, and 128 of them were detained. Numerous people, including journalists and lawyers, were then imprisoned.