عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Turkish Police Arrest Pro-Kurdish HDP Officials

Turkish police walk in front of the Metropolitan Municipality headquarters in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Reuters file photo
Turkish police walk in front of the Metropolitan Municipality headquarters in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Reuters file photo
TT
TT

Turkish Police Arrest Pro-Kurdish HDP Officials

Turkish police walk in front of the Metropolitan Municipality headquarters in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Reuters file photo
Turkish police walk in front of the Metropolitan Municipality headquarters in Diyarbakir, Turkey. Reuters file photo

Turkish police detained three district heads of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and seven others in Istanbul on Friday over alleged links to militants, police said, two days after a court case began over banning the party.

Separately, Turkey’s Human Rights Association (IHD) co-chairman Ozturk Turkdogan was arrested by police at his home, IHD said, prompting human rights groups to call for his release. Turkdogan was then released on Friday evening, the association said.

A prosecutor filed a case with the Constitutional Court on Wednesday demanding a ban on the HDP, the culmination of a years-long crackdown against parliament’s third-largest party. The HDP called it a “political coup”.

State-owned Anadolu news agency said on Friday that police arrested the 10 people over alleged links to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants - deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. Prosecutors have ordered 12 arrested in total, including former provincial heads of the HDP, it said.

Media reports said Turkdogan was detained as part of those raids. Human Rights Watch Turkey director Emma Sinclair-Webb called for his immediate release on Twitter, addressing the country’s foreign and justice ministers.

“In Brussels you talk about dialogue with civil society but the reality at home is dawn raids and arrest of human rights defenders,” she said.

European Council President Charles Michel is scheduled to hold a video conference with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen on Friday. EU leaders are then due to discuss strained ties with Turkey at a summit next week.

Police in Istanbul staged raids in four areas and detained two top HDP officials in the district of Kagithane as well as its Besiktas district head among 15 suspects sought, the city’s police headquarters said.

Erdogan unveiled a “human rights action plan” this month, saying Ankara would strengthen the right to a fair trial and the right of freedom of expression. Critics say the plan fails to tackle an erosion of human rights in the country, however

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Sri Lanka Train Memorial Honors Tsunami Tragedy

A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
TT
TT

Sri Lanka Train Memorial Honors Tsunami Tragedy

A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
A train “Queen of the Sea” arrives with family members of the victims on-board at a special memorial monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024. (AFP)

Just inland from the crashing waves on Sri Lanka's palm-fringed shores, the train slowly came to a stop on Thursday -- marking the moment a deadly tsunami hit 20 years ago.

Sri Lanka's Ocean Queen Express became a symbol of the biggest natural disaster to hit the South Asian nation in living memory, when the train was struck by the giant waves of December 26, 2004.

About 1,000 people were killed -- both passengers and local residents, who had clambered inside desperately seeking shelter after the first wave hit.

After they boarded, two bigger waves smashed into the train, ripping it from the tracks and tumbling it onto its side more than 100 meters (330 feet) from the shoreline.

Each year since then, the Ocean Queen has stopped on the tsunami anniversary at the spot in Peraliya, a sleepy village some 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of the capital Colombo, to commemorate those killed.

"To me, it all brings back the very hard memories," said Tekla Jesenthu, whose two-year-old daughter died as the waves hit the area. "I don't want to think about or talk about it -- it hurts that much."

"Monuments won't bring them back," she added.

- Climbing for survival -

Survivors and relatives of the dead boarded the train in Colombo early in the morning before it headed south with national flags fluttering on its front and then slowed to a creaking halt in commemoration.

Villagers came out, the line was closed and a few moments of quiet settled.

Mourners offered flowers and lit incense at a beachside memorial for 1,270 people buried in mass graves, with Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim ceremonies held.

"When I saw the first wave, I started running away from the waves," said U. A. Kulawathi, 73, a mother whose daughter was killed, her body swept out to sea.

"The water reached the roof levels and people climbed the roofs to save themselves."

The 9.1-magnitude earthquake off the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island triggered huge waves that swept into coastal areas of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other nations around the Indian Ocean basin.

A total of 226,408 people died as a result of the tsunami according to EM-DAT, a recognized global disaster database. Of those, 35,399 were in Sri Lanka.

Sarani Sudeshika, 36, a baker whose mother-in-law was among those killed, recalled how "animals started making strange noises and people started shouting, saying, 'Sea water is coming'".