France 24
Turkey announces 718 arrests in pro-Kurdish circles
The Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday the arrest of 718 people, including leaders of the pro-Kurdish party HDP, suspected of links with the PKK, which Ankara accuses of having executed nationals in Iraq. While Erdogan blamed the United States for their weak reaction, Washington confirmed the responsibility of the “PKK terrorists”. Turkish authorities arrested 718 people, including leaders of the pro-Kurdish HDP party, the Turkish Interior Ministry said on Monday (February 15th). These people are suspected of links with the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to which Ankara on Sunday blamed the “execution” of 13 Turks in Iraq. “A large number of weapons, documents and digital material belonging to to the (terrorist) organization were seized during the searches, “added the Ministry of the Interior, specifying that operations in 40 cities across the country were still underway. Protesting against the American reaction, considered weak by the pro-government media, Turkey summoned the United States Ambassador to Ankara on Monday. “The American Ambassador (David) Satterfield was summoned to the ministry today and our reaction to the American communiqué was communicated to him in the strongest terms,” the ministry said. The PKK refutes Ankara’s version Turkey accused Sunday the PKK for having executed 13 of its nationals, members of the security forces for the most part, whom it had held captive in northern Iraq for several years. According to the Turkish Minister of Defense, Hulusi Akar, Turkish soldiers discovered 13 lifeless bodies in a cave in the Gara region of northern Iraq, where Ankara is carrying out an operation against the PKK, a group described as “terrorist” by Ankara and its Western allies. PKK on Sunday admitted the deaths of a group of prisoners, but refuted Ankara’s version, claiming they had been killed in Turkish airstrikes.Tensions between Washington and AnkaraTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revived one of the main points ts of disputes between Turkey and the United States by accusing them of supporting Kurdish “terrorists” after “the execution”, according to Ankara, of 13 Turks in Iraq at the hands of the rebels of the PKK. The US State Department had declared, Sunday, “to deplore” these deaths. “If the information on the death of Turkish civilians at the hands of the PKK, an organization classified as terrorist, is confirmed, we condemn these actions in the strongest terms,” he added in a statement. “The statements of the United States are deplorable. You say you do not support the terrorists but you are indeed at their side, “said the Turkish president in a speech on Monday. If Washington considers the PKK a terrorist organization, it does not support it less Kurdish militias linked to it in Syria as part of the fight against the Islamic State group. This support for the Syrian Kurdish militias of the YPG, which began under the administration of Barack Obama, has for several years been at the heart of the tensions which plague Turkish-American relations. During a telephone discussion with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Cavusoglu, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, said on Monday that “the PKK terrorists” are responsible for the death of 13 Turkish hostages in Iraq. “The Secretary of State expressed his condolences for the death of Turkish hostages in northern Iraq and affirmed that the PKK terrorists bear the responsibility”, also assured the spokesperson for diplomacy American, Ned Price, in a statement.Two supporters of Fethullah Gülen arrestedAmong those arrested by the Turkish authorities are two alleged supporters of the preacher Fethullah Gülen, accused by Ankara of being the mastermind of the failed coup of 2016. Urbuz Sevilay and Tamer Avci were “apprehended” in Uzbekistan and transported to Turkey during an operation carried out by the Turkish secret services (MIT), according to the state agency Anadolu. In addition to his links with the networks of preacher Gülen, Urbuz Sevilay is accused by Ankara of ‘having participated “in the supply of arms” to militiamen affiliated with the Kurdish rebels of the PKK in Syria and Iraq, according to the same source. The preacher Gülen, established for a long time in the United States denies any involvement of n the aborted putsch of July 15, 2016 against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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