Six TGB members detained in Tekirdağ for banner protesting PM Erdoğan's visit

Tekirdağ – Doğan News Agency

Police detained all six TGB members who were present in the building during a raid on the group's headquarters in Tekirdağ, Dec. 6. DHA photo

Six members of the Turkish Youth Union (TGB), a youth association affiliated with the Workers’ Party (İP), have been detained in the Western Tekirdağ province Dec. 6 for hanging a banner protesting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the city.

The banner was hung at the building where the organization’s provincial headquarters is located a few hours before Erdoğan’s arrival in Tekirdağ. It contained a pun on the word Prime Minister (Başbakan in Turkish) and Empty Minister (written Boşbakan), reading “Everywhere Empty Minister, how convenient Prime Minister.”
 
It also contained the word “Hüloğ,” an exclamation made by a woman who participated in the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) counter-rally in Istanbul against the Gezi protests back in June, which became an expression used ironically and pejoratively by the government's opponents to describe the AKP supporters.   
 
Police raided the TGB’s headquarters, detaining six members of the organization who were in the building. All six were released early on Dec. 7 upon the prosecutor's order. 

The İP and the TGB are known for their staunch opposition to the AKP. The TGB’s Istanbul headquarters was also raided in August before the Ergenekon trial verdict hearing, as the group had organized demonstrations during several of the past hearings at the Silivri Courthouse.

Erdoğan kicked off in Dec. 6 a three-day visit to Thracian provinces Kırklareli, Tekirdağ and Edirne.