Police have arrested more than 1,000 people in raids across Turkiye in a renewed crackdown after a suicide bomb attack in Ankara by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK.
About 90 people in 18 provinces across the country were detained over suspected links to the PKK. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said an additional 928 people suspected of holding unlicensed firearms or being connected to firearms smuggling were arrested during the operation, and more than 840 weapons were confiscated.
Hours later the bombing, Turkiye launched airstrikes on Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq, where the PKK leadership is based. The Defense Ministry said a large number of militants were killed” in the strikes.
Among those detained in Tuesday’s crackdown was Aysenur Arslan, 73, a TV news host who questioneddetails of the official account of the attack on opposition broadcaster Halk TV. Arslan was detained in her home after prosecutors accused her of “terrorist propaganda” and “praising criminal activity.”
Several members of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, which ran under the Green Left party banner in general elections, were also among those arrested.
Meanwhile, Turkiye said on Wednesday that two suspected Kurdish militants who died while staging a weekend attack in Ankara had been trained in Syria.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkiye now reserved the right to strike a broader range of Kurdish targets in both Syria and Iraq in retaliation for Sunday’s attack.
Turkish police shot dead one of the assailants while the other died in an apparent suicide blast outside Turkiye’s interior ministry. Two policemen were injured in the incident.
“As a result of the work of our security forces, it has become clear that the two terrorists came from Syria and were trained there,” Fidan said in televised comments.
“From now on, all infrastructure, large facilities and energy facilities belonging to (armed Kurdish groups) in Iraq and Syria are legitimate targets for our security forces.” A branch of the Kurdish PKK militia — listed as a terror group by Turkiye and its Western allies — claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack, the first in Ankara since 2016.
Turkiye conducted air raids against PKK targets in Iraq hours later. Fidan’s comments suggest that Turkiye could expand its air strikes to include war-torn Syria.
Syria’s Kurds have carved out a semi-autonomous area in the country’s north and east.
US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — the Kurds’ de facto army in the area — led the battle that dislodged Islamic State group fighters from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.—AFP
