In Türkiye, arrest of 231 people in the last twenty-four hours, including twelve journalists

More than two hundred and thirty people, including twelve journalists, poets and writers, have been arrested in the last twenty-four hours in Türkiye, suspected of links “suspected with terrorist organizations”according to the Turkish Interior Ministry.

Several journalist associations, including Dicle Firat and Mesopotamia, called on Wednesday, November 27, for a protest rally in Diyarbakir (South-East), the largest Kurdish city in the country.

In a message published on Facebook, the minister, Ali Yerlikaya, clarified Tuesday that the operations carried out in “thirty provinces” led to the arrest of “231 suspected members of terrorist organizations”.

For the benefit of the PKK

These people were arrested for “financing” or “propaganda” for the benefit of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), in armed struggle against the government, or because their “name appeared within the political and media structures of the PKK terrorist organization”according to the minister.

Furthermore, the Turkish armed forces engaged in northern Iraq claimed to have regained control of the Zap region and “eliminated” any presence of PKK fighters, according to Defense Minister Yasar Güler.

However, the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has recently shown a desire to “reach out to the Kurdish brothers”raising the possibility of freeing the historic leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, sentenced to life and detained since 1999 on an island off the coast of Istanbul.