Pro-PKK opposition party 'halts legislative efforts'

The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said it halted "legislative efforts" after the detention of its lawmakers in a terror probe.

The HDP's statement came two days after the detention of the party's co-leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ and seven deputies.

The HDP has come under fire for its close links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist organization. Members of the party, who have so far declined to call the PKK a "terrorist group," attended PKK militants' funerals, two of whom were the suicide bombers that killed tens of civilians in multiple bombings in Ankara.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU, resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015, after breaking a cease-fire agreement with Ankara that had been in force for roughly two years.

Since then, PKK terrorist attacks have killed more than 600 security personnel and claimed the lives of many civilians including women and children, while more than 7,000 PKK terrorists were killed in military operations.