Published by Ekurd Daily, Sepetember 29, 2015
DIYARBAKIR-AMED, Turkey’s Kurdish region,— Turkish police Monday arrested about 30 people working for Kurdish-language media in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir in Turkish Kurdistan, Dogan news agency reported.
Separately, the news agency Dicle said on social media that it and the Kurdish newspaper Azadiya Welat had been targeted in the operation, and that anti-terrorist police had detained 32 journalists and other employees.
According to ANF the detainees were taken to the ground floor of the building where they were subject to violence, while their identity cards and mobile phones were also seized. Those detained in the armed operation were later taken to Diyarbakır Police Headquarters.
It is reported that police had no search warrant or an official document for the raid.
Turkey is pushing a relentless offensive against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels and preparing for snap legislative elections on November 1.
The violence has shattered a peace process launched in 2012, which had raised hopes of an end to the PKK’s three-decade insurgency in which over 40,000 people have been killed.
Since it was established in 1984 the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state.
In the 1990s, the PKK limited its demands to establish an autonomous Kurdish region and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds,who make up around 22.5 million of the country’s 75-million population but have long been denied basic political and cultural rights, its goal to political autonomy. A large Turkey’s Kurdish community openly sympathise with PKK rebels.
In recent weeks, the authorities have carried out a string of arrests of journalists and police have raided a holding company that owns opposition media, sparking criticism from western countries and media watchdogs.
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