73 people detained in Turkey for ‘spreading PKK propaganda’

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

A total of 73 people were detained on Feb. 14 as part of raids targeting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) across Turkey, according to a police source.

In the southern province of Mersin, 16 staff of Akdeniz district municipality were detained for allegedly making PKK propaganda.

In the Tarsus district, seven more people were detained on the same charge.

Digital documents linked to the PKK were also found during the raids at the suspects’ houses.

Twenty-four other suspects were also arrested in the southeastern province of Gaziantep in an operation supported by unmanned aerial vehicles, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement.

The suspects were accused of “making terrorist propaganda” on social media platforms, insulting the president and inciting people to join provocative demonstrations.

A number of ammunition and weapons along with some documents of the organization were also seized during the operations.

Police also rounded up 24 suspects in the Aegean province of İzmir, seven in the western province of Çanakkale, and two in the Black Sea province of Sinop for allegedly spreading propaganda against Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” in Syria’s Afrin district on social media.

Turkey on Jan. 20 launched “Operation Olive Branch” to remove YPG militants from Afrin.