"The arrests over the past few months were preceded for the past two and a half years by enormous political pressure on political activists," notes Aliza Marcus, Macarthur fellow and author of Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence, adding that "upwards of 2,000 people have been detained and imprisoned in the past two years."
„Hapšenjima u proteklih par meseci prethodilo je dve i po godine ogromnog političkog pritiska na političke aktiviste“, napominje Aliza Markus, stipendistkinja fonda Markatur i autorka knjige Krv i uverenje: PKK i kurdska borba za nezavisnost, dodajući da je „više od dve hiljade osoba privedeno i zatvoreno u protekle dve godine“.