ISTANBUL: Turkish counter-terror police detained 10 people, including academic Fikret Başkaya, early on Monday in an operation targeting members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Barış Yarkadaş, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, wrote on Twitter that Başkaya, 77, had been detained at his home in the capital Ankara at 6.30 am local time, and that police had seized some of his personal possessions.
Anadolu said arrest warrants had been issued for a total of 17 people on allegations of aiding the PKK and spreading the group’s propaganda on social media.
Başkaya is a university lecturer and author.
The PKK launched a separatist insurgency in southeastern Turkey in 1984, and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.