Twenty-five PKK-linked suspects, including many pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party's (HDP) regional affiliate Democratic Regions Party (DBP) figures, in the municipality of the Diyadin district of eastern Ağrı province were detained in an operation on Wednesday.
BDP acting mayor in the district, Mustafa Alpaslan, Deputy Mayor Zeynel Abidin Bozkurt, BDP provincial organization chairwoman Sevgi İlboğa and DBP Alderman Mesut Arslan were among those detained in the operation.
Detainees from the operation reportedly confessed that the PKK received assistance from DBP figures in the district in terms of recruitment, arms transfer and financial help, including from the budget of the municipality provided by the state. PKK factions in the Tendürek Mountains located in the area were allegedly helped within a network including co-chairs of the district municipality, deputy mayors, aldermen and several village headmen.
It was further alleged that items for making explosives, weapons and medical equipment and food orders from the PKK were sent by municipal vehicles and that DBP figures in the municipality occasionally hosted PKK members.
Previously, Hazal Aras, co-chair of the Diyadin Municipality, was detained in an operation in March on charges of being a member of the PKK and providing assistance to a terrorist organization.
The PKK had previously used a municipal vehicle belonging to the DBP in the Mazıdağı district of Mardin province in an attack on a gendarmerie post in the southeast, according to information released on Sunday by government sources.
The PKK attacked the Cevizlik Gendarmerie, located in Mardin province's Artuklu district, on July 9 when a bomb-laden vehicle was detonated in front of the building. Two soldiers were killed in the attack and many others were injured.
Southeastern municipalities administered by the DBP have been accused of aiding and abetting the PKK's urban war strategy of digging trenches and erecting roadblocks to claim control of cities there. Heavy equipment belonging to the municipalities was also put at the disposal of the PKK, according to reports, and the municipalities have been criticized for not deploying firefighters to areas hit by PKK attacks.
