EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini tweeted she was “extremely worried” by Turkey’s arrest of Kurdish opposition lawmakers and called a meeting of EU national envoys in Ankara.
Mogherini tweeted on Friday morning:
“Extremely worried for arrest of @hdpdemirtas & other @HDPgenelmerkezi MPs. In contact w/ authorities Called EU ambassadors meeting in Ankaraes and detained the joint leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the second-biggest opposition party in the national parliament, and nine other HDP lawmakers early on Friday after they refused to give testimony for crimes linked to “terrorist propaganda”.
Police raided Figen Yuksekdag’s Ankara-based home, and fellow co-chair Selahattin Demirtas’ Diyarbakir-based home.
Their joint arrest appeared to trigger Friday morning’s PKK attack in Diyarbakir, leaving at least eight killed and 100 injured.
A court official said the prosecutor was seeking Demirtas’ formal arrest and that both he and Yuksekdag were in court after police questioning.
EU-TURKEY DEAL
If Mogherini’s tweet is anything to go by, Turkey’s controversial migration deal with the EU could once again be in the firing line and face harsh criticism from leaders and MEPs within the bloc who are against the deal.
As part of an agreement clinched between Ankara and Brussels earlier this year, Turkey agreed to take back migrants in exchange for billions in aid money and visa-free travel to the EU for Turkish citizens.
SOCIAL MEDIA DOWN
It also emerged on Friday morning that access to social media was blocked by throttling all over Turkey. Throttling is a method of slowing certain websites to the point where they are unusable.
It’s the government’s method to reduce civil unrest from spreading, reported TurkeyBlocks.
Ironically, the Turkish government turned to social media and Apple’s FaceTime to help stop the failed July 15 coup attempt.
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