Three deputy candidates detained on alleged terror charges

ESKİŞEHİR

Police detained three parliamentary candidates of the Green Left Party (YSP) as part of a counter-terrorism operation on April 30.

Müslüm Koyun, Burcu Ayyıldız and Arefe Meryem Yıldırım, running for seats in İstanbul, İzmir and Eskişehir respectively, were detained in home raids within the scope of the operations against far-left Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) youth organization, the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF). ESP chair Şahin Tümüklü was also taken into custody.

The detained are charged with being member’s of the outlawed Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP).

A large number of digital materials and banned publications were seized for investigation in the searches during the raids, while efforts are ongoing to apprehend seven other suspects, police said. The detainees were later transferred to a police station for questioning.

The operation comes as the country prepares for the presidential and general elections.

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

The indictment launched by the chief prosecutor earlier this year said the permanent closure of the HDP was a legal obligation for the indivisible integrity of the Turkish state, and peace and security of the nation.

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