Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya talks to the media after visiting the Italian Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul, Turkey January 28, 2024. REUTERS/Dilara Senkaya/ File Photo
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police detained 282 suspects accused of ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, militant group, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday, among them journalists, politicians, and academics.
The raids of the last five days came as Turkey continues to remove elected pro-Kurdish mayors from their posts over militant ties in a crackdown coinciding with hopes for an end to a 40-year conflict between the PKK and authorities.
Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is expected to make a statement on such efforts, four months after an ally of President Tayyip Erdogan urged him to call on the militants to lay down their arms.
The Journalists' Union of Turkey condemned the detention of three journalists.
"We do not accept that they are detained through house raids instead of being summoned to the police station," the union said in a statement on social media.
Those detained included members of the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK), as well as smaller leftist parties, academics and a prominent LGBTQ rights activist.
Police carried out counter-terror raids in 51 provinces, including the capital Ankara and the largest city, Istanbul. Yerlikaya said the suspects were accused of conducting PKK propaganda, providing financing for the group, recruiting members, and joining street protests.
Police seized two AK-47 rifles among other weapons, he added.
On Saturday, Turkey removed a pro-Kurdish DEM Party mayor from office in the eastern province of Van over terrorism-related convictions, bringing the total number of dismissed DEM mayors to eight since the 2024 elections.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies, has waged an insurgency against the state since 1984, in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000.
(Reporting by Daren Butler and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
