JINHA

ISTANBUL - Hüda Kaya, Istanbul representative for Turkey's left HDP, has called the wave of arrests in Turkey yesterday a "designed operation" to create an atmosphere of war in Turkey.

Police launched a series of raids at dawn yesterday. At least 300 are now thought to have been arrested in the operations, which have been called a "political genocide." Hüda Kaya is the Istanbul representative for Turkey's Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). She said the people "will refuse to be used as tools" in the police operations that took place yesterday.

"I don't think that the state had no hand in the Suruç massacre," said Hüda. "Soldiers died; there were clashes; these things were used as an excuse to launch the plan to enter Syria that has been on their agenda for months. It's very clear that Turkey is being pushed into war."

Hüda said that the ruling AKP ignored the results of Turkey's June elections, in which the party lost its Parliamentary majority, and continued to push to be the only ruling power. Now, she said, the AKP is trying to launch a war, call early elections "and then go into the election saying, 'we're the only choice.'"

The state has publicized the police actions yesterday as "targeting ISIS, DHKP-C and PKK." "They're sending the message that 'we don't distinguish between you,'" said Hüda. She said that the operations, designed ahead of time to create tension and an atmosphere for war, were a major mistake.

(dk-ed/fk/cm)