Turkey arrests 82 Kurdish activists, others in Adana and Diyarbakir

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish police on Friday arrested 26 people in Adana and 59 others in Diyarbakir (known as Amed in Kurdish) for their alleged relations with the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The Diyarbakir Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor said 88 suspects are being investigated for links with the "outlawed" Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). A total of 59 were arrested, Turkish state media reported.

Mezopotamya news agency said Jinnews reporter Beritan Canozer was among them, and had been detained following a raid on her home.

So far, 29 more suspects remain missing and are wanted by the authorities.

In Adana, 26 people were arrested on the orders of the Adana Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and three others are still wanted.

A government crackdown on the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) gained pace in the aftermath of the summer 2016 military coup attempt against the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and has seen over seven thousand people jailed, including the party's co-leader Selahattin Demirtas and several other lawmakers.

Many were arrested after the collapse of the peace process between Ankara and the PKK in 2015. Turkish police regularly arrest civilians based on alleged relations to the PKK, including journalists and activists.

Human Rights Watch recently reported that “terrorism charges (in Turkey) continue to be widely misused to restrict the rights to free expression and association.”

“There are no published official numbers of prisoners held on remand or convicted for alleged links with the PKK, although on the basis of the previous years’ figures the number is at least 8,500 and includes elected politicians and journalists,” the report said.