15 DTP members detained in raids

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Joint police operations yesterday in Istanbul, the central Anatolian province of Konya and the Mediterranean province of Antalya led to the detention of 15 members of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, or DTP, suspected of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Anatolia news agency said most of the detained were university students, with the DTP Konya branch leader and her daughter listed as among those in police custody.

The suspects are accused of PKK propaganda and recruiting potential PKK members and sending them for training. Anatolia news agency said 18 more suspects were currently being sought.

Yesterday’s detentions followed the four arrests in Ankara on Tuesday. Four suspects arrested for alleged links to the PKK are lawyers known as human rights activists. The Human Rights Association, or İHD, staged a protest against the arrests in front of the Ankara Court of Justice yesterday.

DTP election win annulled

Meanwhile, the country’s top election watchdog annulled a DTP election victory in the Girmeli region of the southeastern province of Mardin, accepting a complaint that the party had unduly pressured the region’s people to vote for it, reported Doğan news agency.

DTP’s candidate Ömer Altun won the mayoral post in the March 29 local elections by 36 votes, leading the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, candidate Yusuf Turgay, who came second, to launch an appeal.

Turgay said the DTP had coerced people into voting for it. The local and provincial election boards rejected Turgay’s appeal but the Supreme Election Board, or YSK, accepted his arguments, saying, "The region’s voters had not voted in accordance with their free will."

The board decided to repeat the elections in the region.

A greeting card in Kurdish sent by Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir to top state officials, the Parliament speaker and all the deputies at the end of 2005, wishing each a happy new year did not constitute a crime, a Diyarbakır court decided Tuesday.

Baydemir was charged with abuse of authority and violating the law on use of Turkish in state correspondence and faced three years imprisonment if found guilty. The court decided the criminal element of the crime was not committed and found Baydemir not guilty on all charges.

Baydemir, who in the March 29 elections won a second term in office, is currently engaged in several trials for similar crimes.