Turkish police detain former HDP members for having links to PKK

Turkish authorities have detained 46 people, including former local officials from the People's Democratic Party, who are suspected of having financial links to bloody-minded PKK militants, the state-run news agency reported on Tuesday.

The detained are among 91 suspects sought by a chief prosecutor for allegedly "providing financial resources on behalf" of the PKK terror group, Anadolu Agency reported.
They are accused of being a part of the PKK's "economic structure," of money laundering and of taking instructions from the PKK ringleader Murat Karayılan, it said.

Anadolu said the suspects include former deputy mayors, former party treasurers and former city council members of the People's Democratic Party, or HDP.

Prosecutors accuse the HDP of colluding with the PKK and of seeking to "destroy the unity of the state." They are demanding that the party be dissolved, that it be deprived of treasury funding and that about 450 party members be barred from holding political office for five years.

Dozens of senior HDP members — including former co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ — as well as thousands of party members have been arrested on terror-related charges. Several PKK-linked HDP mayors have been replaced by state-appointed trustees.

The PKK has been viewed as a terror organization by Turkey, the European Union and the U.S. The bloody-minded terror group has been waging an armed campaign against the Turkish state since 1984 and the conflict has left tens of thousands of people martyred.