RECENT ARRESTS IN TURKEY

That this House deplores the recent arrest by the Turkish authorities of the respected professor and Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Assembly member Bsra Ersanli and the veteran publisher and writer Ragip Zarakolu; believes that the arrest of two such distinguished figures in Turkish public life has rightly provoked outrage inside the country; notes that there are growing calls inside Turkey for an end to the policy of confrontation and of sweeping criminalisation of Kurdish organisations and for a move to reconciliation and conflict resolution through negotiation; and urges the Government to lend its support to those calls and for it to make clear to the Turkish government its disapproval of those arrests.