Turkey's first Roma deputy slams police raids in Roma neighborhoods

A Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy has slammed a huge police operation in Roma neighborhoods of the town of Ke?an in the northwestern province of Edirne, saying the raid aimed to "fuel ethnic discrimination" and "advertise the police forces in the media." 

During the operation early on July 1, in which 45 locals were detained, around 200 riot police officers reportedly marched in the streets of Ke?an, chanting "How happy is the one who says I'm a Turk" and "Police provide peace and security," Do?an News Agency reported.

Özcan Purçu, a Roma-origin deputy who was elected from the CHP in the June 7 general election and marked a first, claimed on July 2 that Roma neighborhoods were being used as "training sites" by the police.

He said 45 people were detained in the operation and two of them were formally arrested for resisting the police. "There was a great discrepancy between the size of the operation and its [modest] results," Purçu said, speaking at a press conference in the Turkish Parliament.

Condemning the operation, he also said he had repeatedly called the head of the Ke?an Police Department but did not receive any response.

Some 45 people, including the Thrace Roma Associations Federation Head Fahrettin Savc?, were detained on July 1 in multiple police raids in neighborhoods mostly populated by Roma people in Ke?an, upon claims of "brawling, looting activities, threatening, and resisting police," Do?an News Agency reported.

Around 700 anti-riot police forces raided 50 locations in Ke?an's Yenimescit, Mustafa Kemal Pa?a and Cumhuriyet neighborhoods. 

Two 17-year-old suspects, identified only by the initials B.A. and O.T., who were among the 45 detainees, were arrested and sent to the Edirne...