Protestors were taken into police custody in Istanbul’s Sirinevler district as a group of HDP members prepared to issue a statement over a knife attack on a HDP office in the city’s Bahcelievler district, it said.
The protesters, which included HDP lawmaker Huda Kaya, were met with police force, according to the site.
One suspect is in police custody after two people were wounded during a knife attack on the HDP Bahcelievler district office on Tuesday, Duvar news site reported, in an incident marking the second attack on a HDP office this year.
“We attempted to use our democratic right to protest the attack on our party building with a press statement,’’ Gazete Karinca cited HDP Istanbul co chairman Ferhat Encu as saying. “But hundreds of police tried to stop it…. a great number of our friends were detained. Detentions and armed attacks will not work to intimidate us.’’
The Turkish government has led a years-long crackdown on the HDP, Turkey’s second largest opposition party in parliament. The party is accused of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that has been at war for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey for four decades. The HDP denies the charges.
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