Turkish police have captured a total of 282 suspects linked to the PKK terrorist group in nationwide raids over the last five days, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced Tuesday.
The raids, which have been going on over the last five days, were carried out in 51 cities, including Istanbul, Ankara and southeastern Diyarbakır, which witnessed countless PKK attacks over the years, the minister said on X.
The raids came amid hopes for an end to the PKK’s 40-year terror campaign.
Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is expected to make a statement on such efforts, four months after an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged him to call on the terrorists to lay down their arms.
The 282 suspects were accused of spreading PKK propaganda, providing financing for the group, recruiting members and joining in street protests, Yerlikaya said. The police seized two AK 47 rifles, among other weapons.
In separate raids across nine cities, including Istanbul, police also detained 52 suspects for serving the HDK, a PKK affiliate considered a so-called alternative to Parliament.
Among the suspects were executives from PKK-affiliated parties like the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and Labor Party (EMEP).
The HDK is being investigated by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul to expose its ties to the terrorist group. The HDK itself is considered the continuation of the DTK, which is marked as a terrorist group.
The HDK is mobilizing social groups by acting as a legal organization and releasing press statements or organizing protests appearing legal, counterterrorism reports have said.
Authorities have blamed the HDK for mobilizing people during Operation Trenches, which cracked down on PKK terrorists in Şırnak between 2015-2016. The HDK has sent recruits to PKK’s rural ranks and functioned as the umbrella organization of the PKK’s so-called political branch in Türkiye.
The PKK, designated as a terrorist group by Türkiye and its Western allies, launched its terror campaign against the state in 1984 to achieve a so-called Kurdish self-rule in southeastern regions. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the violence.
Kurdish residents in southeastern provinces suffered the brunt of PKK violence, losing children and loved ones to forced recruitment, their homes to bombing strikes and regional peace to the PKK’s brutality and harsh state measures to contain it.
The last push for peace collapsed in 2015 when the PKK resumed attacks during talks with the Turkish government.
Lawmakers from the DEM Party have met Öcalan twice at his prison island, Imralı, near Istanbul, in the past four months. They later visited with Turkish political parties to brief them about the process.
Authorities, the DEM Party and Öcalan are working to iron out details on the historic call, the media has reported.
The DEM Party lawmakers will hold their last meeting with Öcalan later this month and it will likely be the final meeting for Öcalan, who was not allowed visits frequently before the start of the terror-free Türkiye initiative.
The chief terrorist had expressed his willingness to reach out to his group and urge them to abandon arms, according to previous messages he conveyed through DEM Party lawmakers.
The DEM party delegation also met with Iraqi Kurdish politicians in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, the capital of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), on Sunday and Monday.
The lawmaker conveyed a message from Öcalan to Masoud Barzani, a veteran politician and the leader of the influential Kurdistan Democrat Party (KDP).
The KRG is currently administered by his nephew Nechirvan Barzani, who is known for his support of Türkiye's efforts against the PKK. Barzani is a crucial powerbroker in Kurdish affairs.
The delegation also met Nechirvan Barzani, the Iraqi region's deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, and his brother Bafel, the chief of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party who is known for his support of the PKK in Iraq.
The PKK's leadership cadres hide out in northern Iraq's mountainous regions. Türkiye maintains military outposts there and occasionally carries out operations against terrorist groups in the region controlled by the KRG.
