Turkish police on Monday detained 388 suspects over alleged connections to the PKK terrorist group in the eastern Van province.
The suspects, captured in raids between Feb. 17-23, were detained as part of operations to expose and prevent terrorist activities, the city police said.
Separately on Monday, the Interior Ministry announced the removal of a 10th mayor from the PKK-affiliated Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) in eastern Kars province.
“Mehmet Alkan, mayor of the Kağızman district in the province of Kars, has been temporarily suspended from his duties by the Interior Ministry because he was sentenced to six years and three months in jail on charges of membership of an armed terror group,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Many DEM Party mayors and local administrators, which has 57 seats in the 600-seat Parliament, have been detained in similar operations in recent years.
The government typically appoints a trustee to the position during legal proceedings. To Kağızman, the district governor was assigned.
The DEM Party’s two mayors in the Tunceli and Ovacık districts in eastern Türkiye were replaced by trustees in November, and the mayor of Van was convicted earlier this month for helping the PKK.
The developments come as the DEM Party leads talks with jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, for what has been dubbed the “terror-free Türkiye initiative.”
The initiative was launched by Devlet Bahçeli, head of government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
Bahçeli called upon for a temporary release for Öcalan in exchange for his call to the PKK to lay down its arms to end a campaign of violence dating back to the 1980s.
Öcalan responded positively to messages delivered through the delegation of DEM after two rounds of talks at Imralı, an island prison Öcalan has been kept in since his capture in 1999.
Third Öcalan visit
The party’s delegation, including lawmakers Pervin Buldan and Sırrı Süreyya Önder, is expected to make its third trip to Imralı later this week.
DEM Party Deputy Chair Gülistan Kılıç Koçyiğit on Monday said the party would apply to the authorities on Tuesday for a visit.
“The date of Öcalan’s historic call will be finalized,” Koçyiğit said. “We know that call will come.”
The PKK is deemed a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union. The group, which has waged its bloody terror campaign since 1984, exploited the Kurdish community to create a so-called Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Türkiye.
Turkish officials are opposed to the conflation of the Kurdish community and the PKK, arguing the definition implies Kurds are a problem for Türkiye and abets the PKK’s terrorist agenda.
Tens of thousands of people have already died due to PKK violence. The last attempt at peace failed in 2015 when the PKK resumed attacks during negotiations.
The group also occupies Sinjar, Makhmour and has a foothold in Sulaymaniyah, all of which Ankara strongly opposes.
The DEM Party delegation held talks with Iraqi Kurdish politicians last week to brief them about the process and talks with Öcalan.
Masoud Barzani, a veteran Iraqi Kurdish politician from Irbil, the seat of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), has endorsed the process, saying he was “fully prepared to assist and support the process in Türkiye.”
According to a statement released after the meeting, he stressed that “(the process) is the only right way to reach a solution,” urging all parties to “focus their efforts” on achieving it.
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