Turkey nabs 114 in PKK operation across country

ANKARA- Anadolu Agency

Security forces in Turkey arrested 114 people across the country on Feb. 15 over their alleged links to the PKK terror group.

The arrests come in the wake of the PKK execution in northern Iraq of 13 Turkish citizens held captive for six years, an incident that shocked the nation.

Prosecutors in the eastern Ağrı province launched an investigation into 13 suspects named by others previously arrested for PKK links.

A local gendarmerie team arrested 12 suspects on charges of assisting an armed terror group.

Six other suspects who allegedly spread PKK propaganda over social media were also held by the counter-terrorism police in simultaneous operations in the northwestern Balıkesir province.

A Balıkesir-based operation carried out simultaneously in 20 provinces resulted in the arrests of 37 suspects for financing the terror group members.

Multiple weapons and documents related to the organization were seized by the police, while another operation was launched to round up nine more suspects.

Seven more suspects were arrested in an operation in the Aegean Izmir province after local prosecutors issued arrest warrants for four suspects over terror group membership, and six others for spreading PKK propaganda.

Efforts to arrest three remaining suspects are underway.

In the eastern province of Elazığ, three more suspects were arrested by police for spreading PKK propaganda.

Three other suspects were arrested for making propaganda favoring the terror group in the Adana province on the Mediterranean coast.

In the northwestern Ardahan province, anti-terror teams arrested three suspects for allegedly spreading PKK propaganda on social media.

Separately, seven suspects were arrested in the western Manisa province, a security source said.

The provincial security directorate said in a statement that police seized pump-rifles, blank cartridge pistol and bullets, organizational documents, and digital materials.

Four other suspects were arrested for allegedly spreading terror propaganda and carrying out activities on behalf of the terrorist PKK in the eastern Erzurum province, a source said.

In the northwestern Bursa province, seven suspects who allegedly spread PKK propaganda over social media were arrested by gendarmerie forces, another source said.

Two PKK terror suspects were arrested in the eastern Malatya province, with the search for a remaining suspect continuing.

Separately, another 23 PKK terror suspects were arrested in Muş-based operations across seven provinces in Turkey.

The suspects, including a member of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), were accused of trying to establish illegal groups, spread terror propaganda on social media, and attend funerals of neutralized terrorists, it added.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU – has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.