>BREAKING NEWS: AKP’s Turkish Election Strategy: Jail as Many Kurds as Possible!

>As an article in The Economist suggested yesterday, the BDP is likely to do well in the next Turkish General Election.

That is, if there are any BDP activists or representatives left outside Turkish prisons to fight the election!

In contrast to the last local elections when the Kurdish party, DTP (banned predecessor to BDP) won a historic victory with the Kurdish electorate and AKP began jailing DTP activists, MP’s, Mayors and lawyers, this time AKP is rounding up Kurdish BDP activists BEFORE the election. Here is yesterday’s news about two elected Kurdish Mayors being detained. And here is today’s news about another elected Kurdish Mayor being detained.

Here is a snapshot of the last few days from Dicle News Agency. This is typical of the last few weeks with everyday new arrests and detentions.

5779 results found for , showing 1 – 30

12:13 Two more mayors of BDP dismissed 1

12:02 Bismil Mayor detained and nine BDP members arrested – LAST MINUTE 1

14.04.2011

18:45 MP Üskül; Kırbayır killed by police while in custody

16:51 Fifty-six workers detained in Samsun 3

12:23 BDP staffers sentenced to prison in twelve years

13.04.2011

18:13 Environmentalists to march forty days against bill 2

16:33 Health workers to go on strike 3

16:26 Erdoğan defends the elections threshold1

15:38 European Council to send committee to meet arrested journalists in Turkey

14:57 Police take BDP Party Assembly Member Şamil Altan into custody

14:31 Systematic political oppression of Kurds results in two thousand arrests in two years; more violence expected due to upcoming election 1

13:29 Police arrest four BDP members in Aydın

13:27 Police arrest more BDP executives

12:12 Saturday Mothers call on soldiers’ mothers to support peace between Kurds and Turks 4

12.04.2011

17:33 ECHR convicts Turkey for illtreatmen

17:01 No shops opened in Bahçesaray-Van to protest arrests of BDP managers

16:56 More Democratic Solution Tents in İstanbul and Ankara

16:08 One more suspicious death of Kurdish soldier

15:56 Journalist and writer Evrim Alataş commemorated 4

15:03 BDP announce 61 independent candidates it will support

11:04 Twelve BDP executives and members arrested in İstanbul

09.04.2011

16:56 Police attack unarmed protesters, injure two Kurds and arrest two more in Yüksekova 20

16:54 Saturday Mothers gather on the street with families of disappeared 20

16:38 Police attempt to shut down Kurdish march in Yüksekova 1

16:07 US State Department report slams Turkish government for human rights abuses against Kurds

15:43 Turkish court sentences former BDP Van Branch Chair to one year in prison

15:38 Political prisoners prolong hunger strike1

12:37 Police arrest three Kurds in Urfa, detain one in Van

12:26 Police severely beat already injured Kurdish teenager

11:25 More people arrested in Hakkari and Istanbul

Presumably because they have lost all hope of actually winning the seats in a democratic manner they are jailing as many BDP party members as possible.

Not one day goes by without tens of activists being dragged into jail on spurious allegations of some sort or the other.

It reminds me of the UK governments policy of detention without trial against the Republican community in Ireland during the 70’s.

Turkey is determined to push the Kurds into continued conflict!

And the Kurds are determined to fight for peace, justice and democracy!