The detentions are aimed at achieving what the ruling party failed to do at the ballot box in two general elections last year, when the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) won more than 5 million votes, HDP spokesman Ayhan Bilgen said.
The HDP, which has Kurdish roots and is parliament's third-biggest grouping, will show a "democratic reaction" to the detentions, Bilgen told reporters at a news conference, describing the action as an attempt to provoke a civil war.
