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Turkish police have detained 282 suspects in a nationwide swoop on outlawed Kurdish militants, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday.
The arrests came amid fresh efforts for peace to end a four-decade conflict. Peace talks, frozen for nearly a decade, began after a hardline nationalist party unexpectedly offered an olive branch to jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan in October.
The raids, which have been going on over the last five days, were carried out in 51 cities including Istanbul, Ankara and the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir in the country’s southeast, Yerlikaya said on X.
On Tuesday, Turkish authorities ordered arrest warrants for 60 people, including the main pro-Kurdish party DEM and several left-wing figures for alleged terror ties, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Fifty-two have been detained so far.
The DEM said on X that “Turkey woke up today with another operation” against party members.
“It’s clear that the prospect of a solution and peace is beginning to keep some people awake at night,” it said.
The hardline MHP party has urged Ocalan to renounce violence in exchange for a possible early release from Imrali island, where he has been serving a life sentence in solitary confinement since 1999.
Backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the call has renewed hopes of an end to a conflict that has killed tens of thousands.
