Turkey: 4 DBP party members remanded in terror probe

By Bestami Bodruk

ELAZIG, Turkey

A Turkish court in the eastern Elazig province Monday remanded four members of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) in an anti-terrorism investigation, a judicial source said.

The suspects were among the six arrested on Nov. 30 on charges of making terrorist propaganda for the PKK/KCK, the source said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

The other two suspects were released under judicial control, the source added.

The mayor of southeastern Turkey’s Halfeti district in Sanliurfa province, Mustafa Bayram -- also a DBP member -- was arrested last Friday as part of an anti-terrorism investigation.

On Nov. 24, the mayor of Turkey’s eastern Bitlis city, Mayor Huseyin Olan as well as Nevin Dasdemir Dagkiran, an alderman in the municipality, were arrested.

Earlier in November, Tunceli Mayor Mehmet Ali Bul, Van Mayor Bekir Kaya from the DBP and four other municipality officials were arrested.

On Nov. 21, two suspended mayors, Ahmet Turk from Mardin province and Emin Irmak from the province’s Artuklu district, were detained.

In October, the DBP co-mayors of Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeast, were arrested and jailed pending trial on terrorism charges.

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year and has been responsible for the deaths of more than 1,100 security force members and civilians, including women and children.