TURKEY’S opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has warned of an increase in kidnappings and “disappearances” of its politicians and activists as the country has turned into a “republic of fear.” 

It issued an appeal to the international community to condemn this “new type of crime” that has seen the party and its supporters targeted by the Turkish state.

The HDP said that those kidnapped are being asked to stop their political activities or to work as police informants.

The most recent incident was the reported kidnapping of HDP assembly member Hatice Busra Kuyun in Van province last week.

She was detained in broad daylight by police on Cumhuriyet Street, the busiest thoroughfare in Van city centre and held for four days, during which time she was placed under extreme pressure and threatened with jail unless she ceased involvement with the HDP.

Ms Kuyun is an elected member of the party assembly and on the executive committee of the HDP youth assembly. She explained that at last year’s HDP congress she was asked to carry out activities in Van and other eastern Anatolian provinces.

“Since I arrived in Van … I have been subjected to physical surveillance by the police many times,” she said.

On May 4 she explained that she had been stopped by a plain-clothes police officer who demanded to see her identification before being bundled into the back of a car.

Despite her complaints that her treatment was unlawful, she said that she was driven out of the city through numerous checkpoints and was interrogated by the men, who accused her of taking instructions from the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“They claimed that I had been involved in, in fact leading, numerous [political] actions carried out in the city and that I was teaching the youth how to make improvised explosives.

“I told them that if I had been involved in any such thing as they claimed, they had to launch a legal investigation against me,” she said.

Ms Kuyun said they threatened that unless she left Van during Eid there would be consequences for her and “your friends in parliament,” saying “we will not treat you as gently if we ever meet again.”

She was dropped on the side of the road and made her way to a nearby village where she raised the alarm.

She said that she had noted registration number of the vehicle — 65 AAT 923 — and confirmed that a complaint would be raised with the prosecutor’s office.

More than 15,000 HDP members and activists have been detained since 2015, with 6,000 receiving jail sentences, according to the party. At least 200 elected officials and seven former HDP MPs are behind bars, including former party co-chairs Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas.