Grup Yorum Musicians Detained in Okmeydanı Police Raid

* Photo credit: Erhan Elaldı / AA

Supported by helicopters and TOMA tanks, anti-terror police units  held an operation early this morning in Okmeydanı district - a predominated Alevi neighborhood of Istanbul where Berkin  Elvan (15) died after a 269 day long comatose caused by a teargas canister in 2013. 

The operation targeted several apartments and offices as well as associations, detaining scores of individuals.  

Eyewitnesses also said that police teams patrolled every corner of the neighborhood with rifles. Police authorities reportedly employed armored police vans called “Scorpion” [akrep]. 

It was reportedly that among the detainees included musicians from the protest band Grup Yorum 

“Grup Yorum members Ezgi Dilan Balcı, Cihan Keşkek, student İlkay İşler, İdil Culture Center employee Damla Sandal and our guest Steeve Kaczky have been detained,” İdil Kültür Merkezi, a culture center in the neighborhood, said in a statement.

According to various newspaper, journalists reporting from the scene were pushed away as police provided no further detail on the operation. 

Detainees, on the other hand, have been transferred initially to Haseki Hospital for routine screening and Istanbul Police Headquarters for statement.

Several experts say that it targeted the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKC) linked to Istanbul Courthouse hostage crisis on Tuesday and clashes outside Istanbul Police Headquarters yesterday. Both incidents left 4 individuals dead including a prosecutor. (AS/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.