AFP journalist among 50 arrested at Kurdish New Year in Turkey

Around 50 people including an AFP journalist were arrested by police on Sunday in Istanbul on the sidelines of the Kurdish New Year celebrations, witnesses said.

AFP video journalist Eylul Yasar was preparing to film the celebrations of the Kurdish New Year when she was arrested at a checkpoint, journalists and lawyers at the scene reported.

They said Yasar objected to having an "intrusive" body search and was taken away in a police van.

The NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for her immediate release.

Erol Onderoglu, RSF correspondent in Turkey, around 50 people who came to attend the celebrations, which normally include traditional dances and a large bonfire, were also arrested at the site.

An AFP photographer said the bonfire had been cancelled.

Many Kurds, who make up about a fifth of Turkey's estimated 85 million people, say they face significant discrimination in the country.

The former leading figure of the main pro-Kurdish party, Selahattin Demirtas, was imprisoned in 2016 for "terrorist propaganda", while more than a hundred mayors of Kurdish localities saw elections cancelled in the last municipal vote in 2019.

Turkey has often insisted that it does not discriminate against Kurds as a minority but rather opposes the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an organisation banned by Ankara and its Western allies as a terrorist organisation.