november 4, 2016 turkey rounds up erdogan<u+2019>s political opponents as crackdown widens 




salahhatin demirtas, once hailed as the <u+201c>kurdish obama,<u+201d> among the pro-kurdish opposition lawmakers held on friday 




a turkish court placed the two leaders of a major pro-kurdish opposition party under arrest on friday in a dramatic widening of a political crackdown that followed july<u+2019>s failed military coup that will raise concerns about the future of turkey<u+2019>s parliamentary democracy. 




police detained the co-chairs of the peoples<u+2019> democratic party (hdp), selahhatin demirtas and figen yuksekdag, early on friday morning along with nine other lawmakers. the measures against pro-kurdish officials more than three months after president recep tayyip erdogan narrowly survived an attempt by part of the military to seize power on july 15 could also open a new season of conflict with armed kurdish insurgents. hours after the arrests, a car bombing reportedly killed at least eight people in the city of diyarbakir, the largest city in the kurdish-majority southeast of turkey.
turkey rounds up erdogan<u+2019>s political opponents as crackdown widens
kaitlyn stegall