Kati Piri, the European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur, on Friday called for the suspension of membership negotiations with Turkey, following a crackdown on opposition Kurdish deputies in the country.
Speaking to a Dutch media outlet, Piri reacted strongly against the detention of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairs on Friday. During the early hours of the operation, Piri had tweeted that very bad news was coming from Turkey.
Piri described the detentions as “nonsense” and stated that Turkey is fast becoming a dictatorship.
As of Friday evening, seven deputies including HDP Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ had been arrested.