ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish security forces detained dozens of people, including politicians and journalists, for alleged ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), as crackdown against government dissidents continues for the second consecutive day.
Mezopotamya Agency, a Turkey-based pro-Kurdish media outlet reported on Tuesday that the Turkish security forces detained dozens of pro-Kurdish politicians and journalists in Istanbul, Diyarbakir (Amed), Sirnak (Sirnex), and Batman (Elih) provinces.
Sevtap Akdag Karahali, the deputy co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), was among the detainees.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on X on Tuesday that security forces detained 231 people across 30 provinces, for alleged links with the PKK.
The pro-Kurdish outlet reported on Wednesday that the Turkish security forces continued the crackdown and detained three more people in Sirnak, including the DEM Party’s Sirnak provincial committee member Muzeyyen Inan.
State media Anadolu Agency also reported that seven people were detained during operations in the Sirnak, Mardin, Gaziantep, Batman, Adana, and Hatay provinces, for alleged ties with the Kurdish group.
DEM Party condemned the arrests in a statement, saying that the authority in Turkey has lost “social legitimacy”.
“The ruling power, which has lost its administrative competence and social legitimacy, is mistaken if it thinks it can suppress public dissent by escalating its attacks against the opposition, especially our party,” the DEM Party said.
Several journalists’ syndicates in Turkey announced that they will protest the arrest on Wednesday in Diyarbakir.
The wave of arrests coincides with, Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and government-ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), calling for allowing the DEM Party leaders to meet with jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
“We expect face-to-face contact between Imrali and the DEM [Party] Group to be made without delay, and we resolutely repeat our call,” Bahceli said on Tuesday during his party’s parliamentary bloc meeting in Ankara.
Hours after Bahceli’s remarks, DEM Party submitted a request to the Turkish justice ministry to meet with Ocalan.
The DEM Party is routinely accused of being the political wing of the PKK. Founded in 1978, the PKK initially called for the establishment of an independent Kurdistan but now calls for autonomy. The group is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and Western allies.
In a speech earlier this month, Bahceli asked the DEM Party to distance itself from the PKK.
For years, the MHP leader has been a stubborn opponent of pro-Kurdish parties in the country, including the DEM Party, for their alleged PKK affiliation.
Bahceli’s proposal in October reignited the possibility of the renewal of a peace process in Turkey. But a day after the comments, the Ankara compound of the Turkish aerospace industries firm (TUSAS), which manufactures drones and other aerial vehicles, was attacked. The PKK later claimed responsibility for the attack.
In 2013, Erdogan’s Justice and Development (AKP) government entered into peace talks with the PKK, paving the way for an unprecedented opening towards Kurds in the country. Kurdish politicians were able to speak freely about their rights, a topic that was previously taboo. The peace talks, which were mediated by the DEM Party’s predecessor the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), collapsed in 2015 and were followed by intense urban fighting in the country’s southwestern Kurdish areas.
