Turkish police have taken into custody dozens of people, including journalists and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) representatives, over tweets and social media posts that criticized Turkey’s military incursion into Afrin, a Kurdish-populated enclave in Syria.
On the evening of 22 January, police in Ankara launched an operation into social media accounts that “incite the public to hatred and hostility, spread terror propaganda and call for provocative actions.”
In the late evening hours of 22 January, police raided a large number of homes, detaining many including politicians and journalists.
Two journalists, Hayri Demir from the pro-Kurdish Mezopotamya news agency and the Ankara Bureau Chief of the Germany-based Turkish news website Artı TV Sibel Hürtaş, were also detained.
HDP Party Council member Kemal Bülbül, and HDP Ankara chapter administrator Osman Kanukçu. Other HDP administrators Zeyno Bayramoğlu and her sister Aslı Bayramoğlu were also sought by police, but couldn’t be located in their homes.
There were also operations in İzmir. Twenty-three people including HDP İzmir branch co-chair Çerkez Aydemir were taken into custody. Reports said the suspects were accused of “terror propaganda” and “statements that might incite the public to take to streets.” Six of those detained were accused of “offending the public by spreading propaganda on public transportation.”
