Three people who attempted to stage a demonstration protesting the support for a Turkish military incursion into northern Syria extended by Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have been arrested, Turkish media outlets reported.
On Wednesday five protestors from the leftist Dev-Güç organization hung posters on the CHP building in İstanbul’s Şişli district that read: “This occupation is aimed at saving the AKP [ruling Justice and Development Party]. Say ‘stop’ to invasion,” “The occupiers will be defeated, the resisting peoples will win.”
Turkey launched its long-planned Operation Peace Spring on Oct. 9 aimed at taking out the Kurdish forces it sees as terrorists but which most of the West views as key partners in the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.
The protestors, who were detained by police on Wednesday, appeared in a court in İstanbul on Friday where three of them were arrested on charges of obstructing the activities of a political party, while the two were released on judicial probation.
On Thursday Turkey agreed to a five-day ceasefire in northeast Syria to allow for the withdrawal of Kurdish forces following talks between US Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkish courts have arrested more than 30 people and detained in excess of 200 others for criticizing on social media or protesting the Turkish military incursion into northern Syria since Oct. 9.