Turkish police have detained dozens of people including pro-Kurdish party officials, accusing them of spreading propaganda for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a security source said on Wednesday.
At least 49 people were detained for allegedly spreading “terror propaganda” and “membership of a terror group”, as part of an operation against the PKK in Van and Hakkari in eastern and southeastern Turkey, the official told AFP.
Among the detainees were several officials from local branches of the pro-Kurdish, left-wing Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
The Turkish government says the party has links to the PKK — a claim the HDP denies.
The PKK is listed as a terror group by Ankara, the European Union and the United States.
The PKK, which has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, has resumed attacks on security forces since the rupture of a fragile ceasefire last year.
Two members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were killed this week in two attacks that were blamed on PKK militants.
It was not immediately clear if the latest arrests were linked to a police hunt for the perpetrators of the attacks in Van and in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
Source: AFP
