Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said that the detention of 11 lawmakers from the opposition People's Democratic Party (HDP) was a part of the legal process.
HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ and nine other top party members were detained early Friday as part of a counter-terrorism investigation.
“They [HDP MPs] were detained because they refused to give testimony,” Yıldırım told reporters in Ankara, adding the process was a legal requirement.
The police operation against the MPs comes after prosecutors in Diyarbakır, Hakkari, Van, Şırnak and Bingöl provinces gave the go-ahead following the parliamentarians' refusal to cooperate with the investigation.