Eleven members of parliament from a pro-Kurdish political party have been detained in Turkey after failing to respond to a summons by a prosecutor, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s office.
State media reported that several politicians from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), were detained as part of a terror investigation after raids on their homes.
The HDP, Turkey’s third-largest political party, also claimed their headquarters in Ankara were raided.
The government said the politicians were detained after they refused to respond to summons from prosecutors.
Ankara has been accused of cracking down on dissidents since a coup attempt over the summer.
Leaders detained
State-run Anadolu news agency reported that party leaders Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas were among those taken into custody.
Demirtas tweeted late Thursday that “police officials are at my door in my Diyarbakir house [in southern Turkey] to detain me by force.”
The party said in a tweet from its official foreign affairs twitter account that an internet slowdown was in effect “to prevent reactions through social media” to the arrests.
A resident in Turkey speaking to CNN corroborated that the internet was running slowly during the time the HDP said the so-called slowdown was in effect.
Car bomb
Meanwhile, a car bomb also went off in Diyarbakir Friday injuring six people, according to Anadolu.
Turkish authorities blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the attack.
The detentions and explosion come just days after Diyarbakir’s first elected female mayor — Gultan Kisanak — and her co-mayor were detained.
Kisanak, a member of HDP, was detained on terror-related charges, according to Anadolu.
Demonstrators took to the streets to protest her detention, and riot police used water cannons to disperse them.
A 30-year-old conflict between the Turkish state and militants from the PKK reignited more than a year ago in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.
The PKK is identified as a terror group by Turkey, the US and the EU.
The Kurds are Turkey’s largest ethnic minority. For much of the 20th century, the state oppressed this community.
Idris Baluken, a member of HDP and a member of the Turkish Parliament, said, “This is an attack on Kurdish identity and dignity. This attack is no different then any attack on Kurdish officials in the last 100 years.”