French man detained in Turkey after crossing border from the Kurdistan Region

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish authorities have arrested a French man after he crossed the border last week near the city of Zakho in the Kurdistan Region.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency on Wednesday reported that Turkey’s border guards at the Habur Gate, also known as the Ibrahim Khalil crossing, detained Loup Jean Rene Bureau, a French national who was allegedly caught with photographs and interviews with Kurdish fighters in his possession.

According to the news agency, Bureau appeared in court in the Sirnak Province on Tuesday and is being held in custody on “suspicion of assisting a terrorist organization.”

He was also found to have a video entitled "List of weapon distribution," the agency said. There was no immediate comment from French officials.

Turkish authorities also sentenced two Czech nationals on Wednesday for their alleged membership to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) battling the Islamic State (IS) in Syria.

The Habur border crossing is less than 20 km (just over 10 miles) from northeastern Syria, where Kurdish YPG forces control territory.

Turkey considers the YPG to be an extension of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), which Ankara labels a terrorist organization and which has been waging a decades-long resistance against the Turkish government for broader Kurdish rights.

Turkey has been cracking down on the press - going as far as detaining foreign journalists - and on pro-Kurdish parties since the failed military coup last July.