Turkey arrests youth activist, drawing European protest

Audio By Carbonatix

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey has arrested an LGBTQ+ youth activist over criticism he made abroad at Europe’s main rights body about the repression of opponents by President Tayyip Erdogan’s government.

Enes Hocaogullari, 23, gave a speech in Strasbourg in March criticising police violence and detentions plus democratic backsliding in Turkey, saying: “The youth has had enough … We are ready to go on the streets to regain our freedoms.”

He was detained on Tuesday night on arrival from France at Ankara’s Esenboga Airport pending trial on charges of “publicly disseminating misleading information” and “inciting hatred and enmity,” according to a court document seen by Reuters.

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office cited his March remarks about detained opposition mayors, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, as the basis for the case.

Erdogan’s main political opponents have faced an unprecedented crackdown that has seen more than 500 detained in nine months. The president says the arrests tackle corruption.

The Council of Europe rights body’s congress of local authorities said on Wednesday the charges against Hocaogullari were a reprisal for his words and urged his immediate release.

“The Congress has already expressed deep concern about the state of democracy in Turkey and called on the Turkish authorities to stop prosecuting and detaining elected representatives from opposition parties,” Congress President Marc Cools said in a statement.

“This new attack on a youth delegate for having legitimately exercised the right to express their views in a pluralistic public debate, is scandalous and unacceptable.”

The Turkish government did not comment on the case.

Ankara has previously rejected Western criticism of its rights record, accusing European institutions of bias and interference. Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights body.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)