Uptodown-id - Blast Near Turkish Police Headquarters Kills 8
November 04, 2016 at 06:55PM
Turkey's state-run news agency says at least eight people were killed and more than 100 others wounded in a car bomb attack in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Friday. Officials say the attack took place near a police station following the overnight arrest of the joint leaders of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, parliament's second-biggest opposition grouping, and at least 11 lawmakers from the party, whose base is largely drawn from Kurds in the region. Leftists and progressives throughout Turkey also were arrested overnight as part of a terrorism investigation. The governor's office in Diyarbakir said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had claimed responsibility for the attack. The PKK has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey's southeast. Turkey in the past 18 months has been rocked by a series of deadly bomb attacks by suspected Kurdish militants or members of the Islamic State group. NTV television reported the two co-leaders of the country's mainly pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party – Selahattin Demirtas and co-chair Figen Yuksekdag – are accused of sharing PKK propaganda. Frederica Mogherini, the European Union's foreign affairs and security policy chief, said on Twitter she was "extremely worried" about the arrest of both legislators. Mogherini said she was in contact with EU ambassadors in Turkey. Justice minister defends arrests The detentions were lawful, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told the state-run Anadolu Agency. "The lawmakers who are detained ... disregarded the law," he said. "They were sent an invitation but they don't come. What other solution is there? It is to bring them forcibly." Bozdag said Friday's detention orders were for 13 lawmakers, but two were traveling abroad and were not detained. Turkey still remains under a state of emergency after a failed coup in July. Since the coup attempt, some 100,000 military, police, judiciary and education employees have been fired. Some 30,000 have been arrested for alleged links to the plot to overthrow the government of President Tayyip Erdogan. Thousands of judges have been detained under emergency rule, including two members of the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest legal body.
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