Turkiye’s arrests of people with alleged “terror” ties come despite a government effort to end Kurdish conflict.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday that 282 people were detained, including journalists, opposition politicians and academics, within a broad nationwide sweep of people Turkiye accuses of “terror”.
Meanwhile, Ankara is seeking to revive peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – designated as a terror group by Turkiye and its Western allies – that have been frozen for a decade, a process that began in October when a nationalist political party reached out to jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan.
The raids began five days ago in 51 cities including Istanbul, Ankara and the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in the southeast, Yerlikaya said on X.
On Tuesday, Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 60 people, including members of the main pro-Kurdish DEM party, several left-wing figures and journalists. All were detained over alleged terror ties, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
“It is unacceptable that they were detained during raids on their homes rather than being summoned to the police station” for questioning, the Turkish Journalists Union said in reaction, adding that three journalists were among the detained.
The DEM party said on X, “It’s clear that the prospect of a solution and peace is beginning to keep some people awake at night.”
Since late December, a DEM delegation has twice visited Ocalan and held follow-up talks with Turkiye’s main parliamentary factions. On Sunday, the delegation travelled to Iraq to meet Kurdish representatives.
Fighters from Ocalan’s PKK, which has waged a decades-long rebellion against the Turkish state, operate out of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, where Turkiye also has military bases.
In October, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli urged Ocalan to renounce violence in exchange for a possible early release from Imrali island, where he has been serving life in solitary confinement since 1999.
Backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the call has renewed hopes of an end to the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.
Ocalan is widely expected to call on his followers to lay down their arms in the coming weeks, with Kurdish politicians confident it will be no later than Newroz, the Kurdish New Year, in March.