ANKARA, TURKEY: On the morning of 23 June, dozens of revolutionaries and democrats from various organisations were once again arrested in a wave of detentions, whilst raids were carried out on homes and premises.
The organisations affected by these attacks and arrests include the ESP (Socialist Party of the Oppressed), the SGDF (Federation of Socialist Youth Associations), POLEN-EKOLOJI (Workers’ Ecology Collective), Devrimci Parti (United Revolutionary Party), Kaldıraç, Umut-Sen, Gençlik Komiteleri (Youth Committees), Bağımsız Devrimci Sınıf Platformu (Independent Revolutionary Class Platform), Partizan, YDG (New Democratic Youth), Özgür Üniversite Hareketi (Movement for a Free University) and Halkın Hukuk Bürosu (People’s Legal Office).
The number of arrests is expected to rise further as the day progresses; so far, 209 people have been taken into custody, with 241 arrest warrants still outstanding (as of 23 June, 13:03).
These arrests follow a wider wave of repression against Turkish-Kurdish left-wing and revolutionary organisations and structures, and are by no means coincidental – the arrests and raids took place after the Ankara provincial administration announced that it would criminalise and ban demonstrations, gatherings and travel to the city as counter-protests against the upcoming NATO summit.
The latter is already facing widespread protests and mass mobilisation in the run-up to the event, driven by democratic and revolutionary parties and organisations.
The brutal tactics employed by the Turkish fascist state against revolutionaries and democrats will not deter them from taking to the streets to protest against the NATO summit!
Known persons who have been arrested include:
ESP and SGDF members: Şevin Özden, Mert Ahmet Aldemir, Hasan Basri Usta, Hale Nur Çetin, Medine Açıkgöz, Aslıhan Han Özden.
The chair of the United Revolutionary Party: Elif Torun Öneren.
A spokesperson for UMUT-Sen: Burcu Arıkan
Editor-in-chief of Kaos GL: Yıldız Tar
Members of the Association of Contemporary Lawyers: lawyer Semra Demir, lawyer Kürşat Bafra and lawyer Doğa İncesu.
Others arrested in Ankara include:
Hasan Akman, Çağla Yeşim Çakır, Gizem Uzun, Öykü Öncel, Muhammed Enis Yıldız, Duru Yılmaz, Melsu Berfu Ertan, Zeynep Ceren Özen, Tuğba Kahraman, Faik Hamarat, Aze Eylül Aytekin, Sönmez Can Karayünlü, Mustafa Uğur Akkaya, Enes Uğur Tekin, Dilara Çelik.
For its part, the “Halkın Hukuk Bürosu” (HHB) announced that Ferdi Sarıkaya, Doğan Karataştan, Ümit Çobanoğlu, Sevcan Akdoğan, Arif Pelit, Fatma Alcan, Nagehan Kurt, Yıldız Turan, Emir Karakum and Hüseyin Kütük had been taken into custody.
