Eight DTP party officials in Izmir arrested

Police in Izmir detained 14 people in a raid carried out on DTP offices.


Güncelleme: 12:52 TSİ 16 Mart 2007 Cuma


IZMIR - A court in the Turkish city of Izmir late Thursday ordered the arrest of eight officials of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), including the party's head for the province and the branch leader in the town of Torbali.


Officials of Turkey's anti terror squad interrogated 14 people after raids on DTP offices on Wednesday.


The court released the other six persons detained. Among those released was a journalist for the Dicle News Agency who had been detained for passing on footage to Roj TV.Police carried out the searches after the Izmir DTP branch issued a press statement in support of the arrested DTP head for the party's Diyarbakir branch, Hilmi Aydogdu. Aydogdu was arrested for making a statement that an attack on the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk would be perceived as an attack carried out against Diyarbakir.


Police in Izmir also looked into claims that some members of the party were staging a hunger strike at the DTP Konak district branch in Izmir in support of the PKK.