13 Left Wing Activists Arrested Under Terrorism Charges

13 members of the Socialist Democracy Party (SDP) and the Social Freedom Platform (TÖP) were detained, among them SDP Chairman Rıdvan Turan. Sultan Seçik and Özgür Aytekin were released pending trial by the court; another two people were released by the prosecution. The detainees had been arrested last week over alleged connections to the "Revolutionary Headquarters Organization" as a result of raids carried out in Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa.

The Revolutionary Headquarters is a terrorist organization that claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on the Istanbul Provincial Building of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and  for an explosion at the Üsküdar (Istanbul) 1^st Army Command in 2008.

SDP chairman Rıdvan Turan detained as well

The decision of detention was issued on Friday morning (24 September) and includes SDP Chairman Turan, TÖP spokesmen Oğuzhan Kayserilioğlu and Tuncay Yılmaz, SDP Deputy Chairs Günay Kulibay and Ecevit Piroğlu, Central Steering Board Member Ulaş Bayraktaroğlu, SDP members Özgür Cafer Kalafat and İbrahim Turgut and TÖP member Semih Aydın. The SDP condemned the detentions in a written announcement and in a press release made on Galatasaray Square (Istanbul).

Necdet Kılıç, supposed to be a close friend of former Eskişehir Chief of Police Hanefi Avcı, who recently published a book about his time on duty, is among the detainees. When he was brought to court he told the journalists: "It is all a big lie, a lie. Defamation. I will tell you the reasons".

Birdal and Tunceli form BDP condemned detentions

Deputies of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Akın Birdal and Sabahat Tuncel went to the Istanbul Courthouse in Beşiktaş on 24 September to request the release of the detainees. Birdal declared to bring the issue to Parliament in case the detainees would not be released. Tuncel condemned the operation and called it an "attack on democracy".

Tuncel said that the referendum on the constitutional reform package did not change anything in Turkey and that the coup constitution had been used by the political power and by the opposition parties. She also emphasized the need for amendments of the Anti-Terror Law.

SDP criticized samanyoluhaber news website

In an announcement issued in the evening of 23 September by the SDP, the party criticized pictures forwarded by the Istanbul police to the media when the suspects were giving their statements at the prosecution as being "complete fiction". The party also condemned the publication of the footage in the news of SamanyoluHaber.com entitled "Shocking images from the police" and the imputation of an alleged connection between party members and the bomb attack on the AKP Provincial building in 2008.

The news site of the nation-wide Zaman daily reported that "a detailed investigation confirmed that illegal activities were carried out disguised on a legal platform under the roof of the SDP". Zaman.com.tr furthermore published a list of weapons "seized".

Members of the SDP, TÖP and the Labourer Movement Platform gathered on the Barbaros Square in Istanbul and shouted slogans such as "Long live the unity of workers and the brotherhood of the people" and "Pressure will not intimidate us".

Writer Celal Beşiktepe read out a joint statement on behalf of representatives of democratic institutions together with Ali Çençi, Vice President of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DİSK), and Hülya Gerçek, Deputy Chair of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP). In the statement, the detentions were described as "a political complot". (BT/EÖ)