At least six people were taken into custody on the sidelines of a rally in Şırnak as part of the DEM Party’s election campaign tour. The meeting, which was also attended by the co-chair of the party, Tuncer Bakırhan, had already ended when the Turkish police intervened indiscriminately in the crowd and forcibly removed several participants. The authorities did not provide any information on the reasons for the action.

The detainees include local politician Murat Şen, who ran for the HDP in the 2019 local elections and was elected co-mayor of the district of Idil, but was subsequently removed from office by the Turkish government and replaced by a trustee. The other five detainees are members of the DEM Youth.

The board of the provincial association of the DEM Party condemned the mass detention, calling it “a sign of the Turkish government’s fear of the democratic opposition.” Calling for the immediate release of all those detained, the party said that the detainees were not guilty of anything and were taken into custody completely arbitrarily.