‘END OF DEMOCRACY’

Outrage as Turkey Seizes Top Kurdish MPs

Car bomb explodes shortly after detentions.

The Turkish government’s post-coup crackdown continued Friday as the leaders of the country’s largest pro-Kurdish opposition party, People’s Democracy (HDP), were arrested along with nearly a dozen MPs. HDP co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas—known as the “Kurdish Obama”—and Figen Yuksekdag were arrested after being accused of spreading propaganda for pro-independence Kurdish militants fighting against the Turkish government. Shortly after their detention, a car bomb exploded outside a police building in Diyarbakir, killing eight people and injuring at least 100. Authorities have already blamed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants for the blast. In response to the arrests, the HDP said the crackdown marks the “end of democracy” in Turkey.