Articles About Terrorist Activities

Police have detained around 60 people in operations in four provinces targeting separatists, a local official said.

Police raided the homes and offices of suspects in Istanbul, the southeastern provinces of Batman and Diyarbakır as well as the eastern province of Van and the eastern city of Iğdır, the governor’s office in Batman said in a statement.

Accusations against the suspects include being members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, aiding and abetting PKK separatists and encouraging people to join the organization and participate in its armed campaign, the statement said.

The most high-profile person to be arrested was Iğdır mayor, Mehmet Nuri Güneş, who is from the Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, the daily Radikal reported. He was arrested along with eight other members of the DTP. Güneş refused to leave without being handcuffed and was promptly handcuffed by Gendermarie forces and taken away.

Police seized several arms and explosives during the raids.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms against the government in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.

In August, the government announced plans to expand Kurdish freedoms in a bid to erode popular support for the PKK and end the insurgency.

But the initiative suffered a serious blow last month when seven soldiers were killed in a PKK ambush and the Constitutional Court disbanded Turkey’s main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party, or DTP, for links to the separatists, sparking deadly Kurdish protests and street violence. Most members of the defunct DTP have joined the BDP.

SourceHurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-rounds-up-60-over-links-to-kurdish-rebels-2010-01-21