Operations in nine provinces on Tuesday netted 30 suspects linked to the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C) and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) terrorist groups.
Earlier, the chief prosecutor’s office in the western province of Izmir issued arrest warrants for 40 suspects in an investigation into the two terrorist groups, which have close ties. Suspects were accused of financing the DHKP-C and the MLKP. In coordination with the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), gendarmerie troops launched simultaneous operations to catch the suspects. Authorities said 10 other suspects with outstanding warrants, including five who were found to flee abroad earlier and three others currently at large.
Although it tries to portray itself as a separate group, the MLKP often aligns with the PKK. The PKK has conducted a bloody campaign of terrorism across Türkiye for decades, killing thousands of people, particularly in the southeast.
The MLKP, which was founded in 1994, is on Türkiye's list of "primary terrorist organizations.
During Türkiye's operations in Syria's north to wipe out the PKK's Syrian offshoot YPG presence, several MLKP members joined the PKK/YPG in terrorist attacks targeting Turkish security.
The DHKP-C is listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the European Union.
The terrorist group pursues a far-left ideology and has been actively carrying out attacks and assassinations in the country since the 1980s but its campaign of violence hit a snag when faced Türkiye’s barrage of counterterrorism operations. The DHKP-C’s most high-profile attacks include a suicide bombing that targeted the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Ankara, in 2013 and the killing of a prosecutor in an Istanbul courthouse in 2015. In February, two members of the terrorist group were killed when they opened fire on police officers outside a courthouse complex in Istanbul as they tried to storm the place.
