State's attacks against DTP (Party of Democratic Society) continue.
Recently, the provincial presidents of DTP in Amed (Diyarbakir) and Van were imprisoned and the general presidents of the party, Ahmet Turk and Aysel Tugluk were given a penalty of year and 6 months for each for the leaflets in Kurdish about the 8 March International Women's Day.
Finally, the local office of DTP in the district Buyukcekmece in Istanbul was raided by the soldiers under the command of the Gendarmerie Commandership of Esenyurt the previous day, under the allegation that "they hold illegal activities". 11 people were arrested, among them also the regional president of the DTP. Simulteanously, the houses of two local DTP leaders were raided as well.
In the districts Bismil and Cinar in Amed and in the cities Siirt and Iskenderun, the imprisonment of Van and Amed provincial presidents was protested by marches and actions, whereas the general president of the DTP, Ahmet Turk stated that they try to stop the functioning of their party through the penalty against him and Aysel Tugluk.
On the other hand, 1st Extraordinary General Congress of DTP was celebrated on 28 February. Ahmet Turk was reelected as the general president in the congress, where the return of the ex-diputatives of DEP, Leyla Zana, Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Sirri Sakik to the political life in the party called attention. The ex-diputatives of DEP were elected unanimously for the new leadership of the party. The process of seize-fire and the democratic solution to the Kurdish question were discussed in the Congress and they gave the signal of a possiblity that they could participate in the elections with independent candidates instead of the party, because of a quota of 10 %.