Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said a car bomb targeting a police station had exploded Friday, and killed eight people, including six civilians and two police officers. Yildirim said 100 people were also injured in the explosion.

Turkish authorities blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the attack, especially as the explosion happened only a couple of hours after the arrest of 11 members of parliament from a pro-Kurdish political party. Party leaders, Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas were among those arrested.

Since the July failed coup, Erdogan and his government have been accused of cracking down on dissidents. Likewise, 110.000 people have been purged and around 40.000 have been imprisoned. As a matter of fact: Just last week-end, 10.000 civil were fired.

Those people were working in very different sectors of society such as government, military, courts, media and academia. The United Nations’ human rights office said on Friday that the Turkish government was going « beyond what is permissible », she added, « There needs to be a presumption of innocence when you’re going to suspend somebody from their job, when you’re going to detain somebody, you need to do this in line with due process, ».

A lot of antidemocratic measures have also been taken; more than 160 media outlets have been shut down while internet restrictions have been increasingly used to suppress media coverage during political incidents in order to prevent civil unrest.

In October, the state of emergency has also been extended for another three months which basically means that any opposition figures will risk to be jailed without due process.

Europe has grown increasingly concerned over the violation of the rule of law in the country. Yet, since the signature of the Turkey-EU agreement, when Turkey agreed to take back migrants in exchange for billions in aid money and visa-free travel, Turkey has had a way to pressure the Union.

Yet, European Parliament’s Vice President Alexander Graf Lambsdorff said visa-free travel for Turkish citizens was unlikely by 2017, due to the Turkish government’s crackdown and purges.

The pressure between the Turkey and European leaders is increasing, notably on the German side. Likewise, President Erdogan yesterday accused Germany of being a « haven for terrorist » that would be « judged by history » as Germany has protected the PKK and DHKP-C for years. He added that they “are concerned that Germany has become the backyard of the Gulenist terror organization”.