Turkey Arrests Dozens for Supporting PKK
Local Editor
Turkish police detained 20 suspects, including lawyers, in an operation involving raids across Istanbul targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] group, the state-run Anadolu Agency said Wednesday.
The raids came as fighting between security forces and PKK members spread to new areas in southeast Turkey, with tanks, helicopters and armored cars deployed after a suicide bombing that killed 37 people in the capital, Ankara.
The agency said the anti-terror police raids, backed by helicopter, were carried out simultaneously at 32 spots across the city and those detained included lawyers of an unspecified association.
The suspects were taken to the main Istanbul police station after routine health checks, Anadolu said, adding that further suspects were detained in operations in eight other provinces.
No group has claimed responsibility for the car bomb that tore through a crowded transport hub in Ankara Sunday, but the interior ministry said it was carried out by a woman PKK member.
Meanwhile, a British academic has been arrested in Istanbul for allegedly distributing invitations to Kurdish New Year celebrations. He was accused of spreading "terrorist propaganda" amid the ongoing crackdown on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party and its supporters.
Chris Stephenson, a Cambridge University graduate, British national and a professor of computer sciences, who was a lecturer at Istanbul's Bilgi University, was detained on charges of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization."
Stephenson was arrested outside an Istanbul police department where he arrived in support of three Turkish academics arrested the day before. According to Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency, the scholar was detained for spreading terrorist propaganda because he was in possession of leaflets that contained "PKK messages and images."
However, according to other reports the leaflets were only invitations to attend the Kurdish Nevruz [New Year] holiday celebrations, and the man was not even distributing them.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
Comments
- Related News
