Turkish state media Anadolu Agency reported that security forces in Istanbul, launched into social media videos showing a woman playing "PKK anthems" in her car, and another video of young individuals chanting slogans in support of the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
According to Anadolu, the Turkish counterterrorism teams launched simultaneous operations at 24 locations across 7 districts, detaining 13 suspects and seizing “digital material.”
This comes days after a similar incident in the southern Mersin province, where security forces arrested 10 people for chanting slogans in support of Ocalan.
On Friday, Turkish police arrested six women in Siirt province for dancing in a video to a song that praises PKK fighters. The women were shown wearing traditional Kurdish clothes in the video.
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.
Clashes between Turkish forces and the PKK fighters have intensified recently in the Kurdistan Region. This escalation in attacks is a part of Turkey’s stated plans to eradicate the Kurdish group along its southern border.
In March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara is close to completing a zone that will “permanently resolve” the security issues along their border with the Kurdistan Region and Iraq by summer.
Turkey has deployed a large number of troops in Duhok province since mid-June.
Erdogan said on Monday that Ankara would get revenge for one of their soldiers who was killed in Duhok, and all their losses in the region: “We are avenging all these losses. They are paying a very heavy price and will continue to do so.”
But Ankara’s relentless military strikes and the deployment of ground troops also have stoked fear in the villagers of Duhok province’s mountainous areas who fear displacement from their villages as mortar shells and constant gunfire prompt panic.
Turkey has carried out more than 1,000 attacks on the Kurdistan Region and Nineveh province so far in 2024, according to conflict monitor Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) data.
