Police stopped the press release of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in Izmir, one of the major cities of Turkey on the Aegean Sea coast.

The DTP members marched to the post office in the Konak neighborhood of Izmir to mail the signatures they had collected, but they were stopped by the police. Although Izmir representative of the Human Rights Association (İHD) Ahmet Alagöz and İHD branch administrator Mihriban Karakaya told them their interfering was not legal and they could not apprehend people without warning them first. The DİHA reporter who was reporting the event was among those who experienced the police intervention.

Furthermore, Eyüp Tutal, Abdulbeşir Yapıcı, employees of the newspaper Azadiye Welat, Resul Yıldız, ;HD Izmir branch administrator, and Neşe Bilgin, reporter for the newspaper İşçi Köylü (Worker Peasant), were taken into custody.

The names of those who were taken to the Bozyaka Anti-Terror Branch and are still in custody are head of DTP’s Izmir branch Nimettullah Epözdemir, DTP administrator Aynur Coşkun, head of the Izmir branch for the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Ahmet Demiroğlu,  BDP Izmir administrator Hasan Hayri Kargil, DTP’s provincial administrators Şehmuz Aydın, Doğan Şimşek, Yusuf Kaya, Zahide Ertene, Yıldız Akad and DTP members Hüsnü Koyuncu, Sabri Öner, Hayat İzgi and Şehmuz Çetin. (EZÖ/TB)