MP candidate arrested on alleged terror charges

ESKİŞEHİR

A parliamentary candidate for the Green Left Party (YSP) has been arrested in the investigation into the far-left Socialist Party of the Oppressed’s (ESP) youth organization.

Running for a seat in the Central Anatolian city of Eskişehir, Müslüm Koyun was detained during a raid on his house on April 30. The arrest comes as the country prepares for presidential and general elections.

Burcu Ayyıldız and Arefe Meryem Yıldırım, running for seats in Istanbul and İzmir, respectively, were also detained during home raids within the scope of the operations against the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF). ESP chair Şahin Tümüklü and five others were also arrested.

The operations followed the suspects’ alleged involvement in the activities carried out by the outlawed Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP).

The other seven detained during the raids were given house arrest, while nine were freed by judicial control decision.

The ESP is part of the Labor and Freedom Alliance led by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which garnered around 6 million votes in the previous parliamentary elections in 2018.

The HDP announced earlier that it will enter the elections through the YSP lists as it is still in the process of the lawsuit filed in the Constitutional Court. The party has long been accused by the government of having links with the PKK.

Another deputy candidate of the YSP, Ayten Dönmez, was arrested last week after her alleged photo said to be taken in the PKK’s training area appeared.

The MLKP was founded in 1994 and was added to a list of active terror organizations in Türkiye in 2007.