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SCORES have been arrested and opposition MPs battered as Turkish security forces attacked a women’s demonstration in Ankara today.
The protesters were detained as police swooped on a protest organised by the opposition People’s Democratic Party (HDP) women’s section in Ankara’s Kugulu Park.
Authorities made their move just minutes after the demonstration started at 7pm, with an unknown number hauled into custody.
HDP MP Meral Danis Bestas was reported to have been “battered” by police as they lashed out at those gathered.
The party’s Ankara executive member Betul Koca and its co-chair Zeyno Bayramoglu was among those detained by the police. She could not remember how she was taken but said she had been threatened by the Ankara police chief.
Sources told the Star they feared for her safety.
The demonstration was organised in defence of the HDP co-chair system, which means every position in the party is gender balanced.
The Turkish state branded the co-chair system an act of terrorism earlier this year. It claimed the elected male co-chairs were legitimate, but said that the women had been appointed by the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
