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| - Turkish police on Thursday raided the local offices of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the southeast and detained four local leaders, a security source said. Ankara suspects the HDP of being a political front for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the state since 1984 and is listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies. The party denies this and accuses the government of persecution. The police raided the HDP headquarters in the Kurdish majority province of Diyarbakir and in its Yenisehir district, confiscating documents and banners linked to the PKK, a judicial source, who requested anonymity, said. They detained the party's Diyarbakir co-chairs Hulya Alokmen Uyanik and Zeyyat Ceylan, as well as Yenisehir co-chairs Remziye Sizici and Kasim Kaya, thesource said. No official reason was immediately given for the raids. Last month, prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 82 people, including a mayor and several former lawmakers from the HDP, who are accused of involvement in 2014 protests that left 37 dead. The HDP is Turkey's second-largest opposition group in parliament. Of the 65 HDP mayors returned in the 2019 local elections, 47 have now been replaced by unelected officials, with some detained on terror charges, the party says. mb/fo/cdw
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