Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on X that Turkish security forces detained 222 individuals during an operation across 36 provinces. The detainees were accused of membership in the PKK, engaging in previous activities within the group, making propaganda, financing and collaboration with the group, and acting as couriers.
The PKK is a Kurdish group that has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state for decades in the struggle for greater Kurdish rights and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara.
The crackdown comes as Ankara has intensified its border operations with the Kurdistan Region, deploying a large number of troops to Duhok province since mid-June and targeting alleged PKK positions. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in March that Ankara is close to completing a zone that will “permanently resolve” the security issues along their border with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq by the summer.
Turkey has already secured approximately 86% of the border area, according to report by the US-based conflict monitor Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT). The areas of operations include the Metina mountain range in Duhok province, which the conflict monitor said “is almost completely under Turkish military control.”
Last month, the CPT said that Ankara had already advanced 15 kilometers into the Region’s territory.
The federal government in Baghdad and the regional one in Erbil have remained largely quiet about Turkey’s military incursions and the devastation the conflict has inflicted on the civilian population and the environment.
