Kars Co-Mayor Şevin Alaca detained

* Photo: Twitter

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Police raided the houses of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and Kars Municipality executives in Turkey's eastern province of Kars in the early morning hours today (October 1).

As part of an investigation carried out by the prosecutor of Kars, the houses of Kars Co-Mayor Şevin Alaca and HDP Kars Provincial Co-Chair Cengiz Anlı were also raided by the security forces.

While there are warrants for the detention of 19 people, several people, including Alaca and Anlı, have been detained following house searches.

As reported by the Mezopotamya Agency (MA), HDP executives have been detained on charge of "being members of the organization" and taken to the Kars Provincial Security Directorate.

The detained

The following people were in detention as part of this investigation as of 9.05 a.m. today: Kars Co-Mayor Şevin Alaca, HDP Kars Provincial Co-Chair Cengiz Anlı, Kars Vice Co-Mayor Muazzez Çağrıtekinci, Fahrettin Kaya, Kaya Naki, Suat Bayhan, Hamit Taşdelen, Reis Baykız, Zorba Başkurtlu, Bülent Ağbaba, Şengül Erkmen, journalist Sevda Manduz.

Bilgen said he would resign

Kars Co-Mayor Ayhan Bilgen was also detained on September 25.

Detained as part of the "Kobani investigation" conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, Bilgen made a statement via his attorneys yesterday and announced that "if no trustee was appointed until the end of his detention period, he would resign from office as the Kars Mayor." (TP/SD)