Over 1,000 detained in nationwide terror operations in one week in Turkey

ANKARA

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Over 1,000 people have been detained in a week since Feb. 6 in nationwide terror operations targeting various outlawed groups, the Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Feb. 13. 

In 250 joint police and gendarmerie operations carried out across Turkey since Feb. 6, some 520 people have been detained over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and 26 have been arrested so far.

The statement added that over the same period 45 people were detained due to alleged links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while 792 were detained as part of probes into the network of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, the statement said. Out of the 792 detained over Gülen links, 147 have been arrested.

Teams also detained six people in operations against outlawed leftist organizations. 

On Feb. 13 alone, police teams in Istanbul detained 70 people over alleged links to the outlawed PKK after conducting simultaneous raids on 104 addresses. Operations to capture 34 more suspects are ongoing. 

The Feb. 13 operations came after police teams were informed that the group was planning to carry out a series of armed, bombed and rocket attacks in the city.

Meanwhile, on the same day, police teams have detained a total of 93 people in the southeastern and eastern provinces of Diyarbakır, Batman, Mardin, Bingöl and Siirt for alleged links to the outlawed PKK.