Search launched for missing opposition politician in eastern Turkey

TUNCELİ – Doğan News Agency

The provincial head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has been missing in the Eastern Anatolian province of Tunceli for more than 24 hours.

Following the disappearance of Hüseyin Zeytin, the CHP’s provincial head for Tunceli, a group of 10 CHP members, including the party’s provincial deputy head, launched a search party.

Zeytin left the city center to go to the village of Sin, located 35 kilometers away from the Tunceli center, on Jan. 7. CHP members in the province notified the governorate and provincial special administration, and requested the village road be opened. The road to the village has been blocked by heavy snowfall and power has been cut in the village.

Ten party members decided to go to the village late Jan. 8, after not hearing from Zeytin for 24 hours, despite the road to the village not being cleared for transportation.

CHP Tunceli provincial deputy head Yılmaz Kılıçoğlu and nine members of the CHP’s Tunceli provincial youth branch set off to the Sin village with a group of journalists to look for the missing Zeytin. The group managed to make it as far as five kilometers away from the village by car, where the road was blocked due to snow. Party members first tried to clear the road with the shovels they had brought, albeit to no avail due to a snowstorm.

Speaking to the journalists, Kılıçoğlu said several village roads had been blocked for the past five days because of snow and that power had also been cut during this time.

“We talked to the authorities several times to open the village road, but they did not listen to us. What is the state of our provincial head? Is he in a life-threatening situation? We are going to the village to ease our minds,” said Kılıçoğlu, before leaving the journalists to reach the village by foot. After some time, the communication link was cut and no news has been heard from the group since.

Tunceli’s provincial special administration sent vehicles to clear the road after the group went missing.