Over 300 arrested over criticism of Turkey's offensive against Afrin

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – With Turkey's military campaign targeting US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces entering its tenth day on Monday, authorities announced the arrest of 311 people over the past week for posting on social media networks their criticism of the offensive that has killed scores of civilians in the enclave of Afrin.

In a press release on its website, the Interior Ministry said the individuals detained were accused of "propaganda for a terrorist organization."

The judiciary also investigated 571 others and launched probes into 208 of them for "declaration of membership to a terror group, inciting hatred among the public, insulting government officials, and expressions targeting the indivisibility of the state."

Separately, an Ankara prosecutor filed an investigation against pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Osman Baydemir for labeling the Turkish army an "occupying force," and for his call to NATO to intervene against Ankara's campaign.

Baydemir had earlier charged Erdogan with wanting to Arabize Afrin and displace the Kurds from the area.

"Afrin is being bombed right now so that the Kurds do not have an [administrative] status. Why should something Arabs, Turks, and Persian enjoy be forbidden to Kurds?" Baydemir asked in a press conference Friday.

Afrin's Public Health Committee announced on Monday that Turkish attacks have killed 60 civilians, among them 26 children, and wounded over 150 others.

There was no information on the casualties of the People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters in the isolated region surrounded by Turkey to its north and west, with its south and east held by Ankara-supported Islamist groups.

The crackdown on social media followed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's warning that security forces would "pulverize" anyone opposing the invasion of Afrin when the army began intensive airstrikes and ground shelling of Kurdish positions.

Erdogan had also told the HDP, already enduring an ongoing state crackdown since late 2016 which saw its Co-leader Selahattin Demirtas, nine lawmakers, 80 mayors, and thousands of members imprisoned, not to protest attacks on Afrin.

Last week, seven HDP lawmakers found themselves under investigation by prosecutors over their calls for solidarity with Afrin's people.

Turkey maintains that it will not stop its offensive on the US-backed Kurdish forces which Ankara has labeled a “terrorist organization.”

Editing by Nadia Riva