Following the detention of Diyarbakır Co-mayor Gülten Kışanak only hours after she testified on Tuesday to Parliament’s Coup Investigation Commission, commission members from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) blamed the government for the mayor’s detention, in remarks during the commission’s Thursday meeting.
“You gave the order for her detention,” said HDP deputies, addressing the head of the commission, Reşat Petek, from the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), arguing that the government was disturbed by Kışanak’s testimony to the commission and asked for her detention.
Petek refused to discuss the detention, claiming its irrelevance to the coup, but the HDP deputies alleged that the commission has been justifying the coup instead of investigating it, before walking out of the commission meeting in protest.
Meanwhile, Kurdish parties have called for protests against the detentions. HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ will attend a protest today.
Diyarbakır Co-mayors Kışanak and Fırat Anlı were detained on terrorism charges on Tuesday evening.
A leading politician and former deputy, Kışanak has been serving as the co-mayor of Diyarbakır, the largest city in Turkey’s mostly Kurdish Southeast, since 2014.
Kışanak was detained at Diyarbakır Airport upon her return from Ankara, where she testified to Turkey’s parliamentary Coup Investigation Commission on Tuesday. Anlı was detained at his home.
In addition to the houses of detainees, the police also searched the Diyarbakır municipal building until 5.20 a.m. local time.