Turkish police yesterday detained some 130 people at a meeting organized by the country’s main Kurdish party on the grounds that the function was linked to armed Kurdish rebels, security sources said. Police said the meeting in the southeastern city of Sanliurfa was held in the name of the “terrorist organization,” the official term used by Turkish authorities to describe the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Democratic Society Party (DTP) said the meetingÂ’s only aim was to hold a debate on the cityÂ’s problems. The detainees are expected to appear in court after testifying to police and some of them could end up facing criminal charges, the sources said. Kurdish politicians in Turkey are routinely regarded with suspicion and often seen as instruments of the PKK, which has been fighting a bloody campaign against the Ankara government since 1984 aimed at winning self-rule for the Kurds. |