HDP spokesperson taken into custody one day after three colleagues detained, released

Turkey's opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) spokesperson and Kars deputy Ayhan Bilgen was detained early on Jan. 29 at Ankara Esenboğa Airport as he was set to fly to Istanbul. 

Bilgen tweeted about his detention and said he was told he would be taken to the southeastern province of Diyarbakır. 

His detention came a day after three HDP deputies, Altan Tan, Hüda Kaya and Meral Danış Beştaş, were detained on Jan. 28. The deputies were released on the same day. 

The three deputies were reportedly detained as part of a terror probe being conducted by Diyarbakır prosecutors over a press release regarding the Oct. 6-8, 2014, incidents in which widespread protests were carried out with the backing of the HDP against the Turkish government's policies regarding clashes between the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the northern Syrian city of Kobane. In the protests that mainly occurred in the eastern and southeastern provinces, over 40 people died.