Germany’s Left Party (Die Linke) said on Wednesday that Turkish police had detained a delegation of 16 German activists and journalists in southeastern Turkey who had traveled to the region in solidarity with Syrian Kurds, calling for their immediate release, Turkish Minute reported. Among the detainees, according to the Left Party, is a representative of Linksjugend Solid, its youth wing, as well as a member of the party’s organization in the German state of Lower Saxony. The Left Party also condemned Turkish authorities for stopping a civil society convoy known as the “People’s Caravan” at the border and preventing it from entering the area. Lawyer Dilan Koç, a member of the ÖHD, said no official reason had been provided for the detentions and that it was unclear if the 16 German citizens had been questioned. According to an August report by the German newspaper Tagesspiegel, citing a German government response to a parliamentary question from Left Party lawmaker Gökay Akbulut, 144 German citizens are currently either imprisoned in Turkey or barred from leaving the country.