Home
[size=39]Turkey detains 235 over Kurdish militant links after Istanbul blasts[/size]
Aftermath of Istanbul blast.
(Reuters) Turkey detained 235 people over alleged links to Kurdish militants in nationwide raids on Monday, two days after twin bombings killed 44 people and wounded about 150 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu vowed those responsible for Saturday’s attacks, claimed by an offshoot of the PKK militant group, would be “wiped from this geography”.
“Our people expect us to defeat and eliminate this terrorist organization, which has attacked our nation for 40 years,” Soylu said while paying a condolence visit to a riot police headquarters in Istanbul.
“We want everyone to know that they will not get anywhere by hiding behind political parties, behind politicians, behind those media outlets protecting them,” Soylu said.
Most of those killed in the bomb blasts were riot police. Funerals were held for a second day on Monday, the victims’ coffins draped in the Turkish flag. A cabinet meeting was postponed to enable government ministers to attend.
The PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and is fighting for Kurdish autonomy, is deemed a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, as well as by Turkey. Saturday’s attack was one of the deadliest claimed by Kurdish militants for decades.
Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq, destroying a PKK headquarters and surrounding gun positions and shelters, an army statement said.
NATIONWIDE DETENTIONS
The interior ministry said Monday’s detentions were made across 11 provinces from northwest to southeast Turkey and that the 235 people were held on charges of “spreading terror group propaganda” over social media and acting on behalf of the PKK.
Many of those detained were members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), parliament’s second-biggest opposition grouping, which President Tayyip Erdogan and the government accuse of links to the PKK.
In a statement on Sunday the HDP said it “harshly condemned” the Istanbul attacks and expressed condolences for the victims.
The HDP’s leaders and several thousand of its members have been arrested pending trial over the past year, drawing criticism from Western allies. The HDP, which last year became the first Kurdish party to enter parliament, denies direct links to militants.
Around dawn, about 500 police, backed by armored vehicles and a helicopter, launched an operation in the southern city of Adana and detained 25 HDP officials there, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Counter-terror police in Istanbul separately took into custody 20 HDP officials, including its provincial head, and carried out searches including the party’s main offices in the city, Anadolu said. The top HDP official in Ankara was among 17 people from the party held in raids there.
Aftermath of Istanbul blast.
(Reuters) Turkey detained 235 people over alleged links to Kurdish militants in nationwide raids on Monday, two days after twin bombings killed 44 people and wounded about 150 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu vowed those responsible for Saturday’s attacks, claimed by an offshoot of the PKK militant group, would be “wiped from this geography”.
“Our people expect us to defeat and eliminate this terrorist organization, which has attacked our nation for 40 years,” Soylu said while paying a condolence visit to a riot police headquarters in Istanbul.
“We want everyone to know that they will not get anywhere by hiding behind political parties, behind politicians, behind those media outlets protecting them,” Soylu said.
Most of those killed in the bomb blasts were riot police. Funerals were held for a second day on Monday, the victims’ coffins draped in the Turkish flag. A cabinet meeting was postponed to enable government ministers to attend.
The PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 and is fighting for Kurdish autonomy, is deemed a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, as well as by Turkey. Saturday’s attack was one of the deadliest claimed by Kurdish militants for decades.
Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq, destroying a PKK headquarters and surrounding gun positions and shelters, an army statement said.
NATIONWIDE DETENTIONS
The interior ministry said Monday’s detentions were made across 11 provinces from northwest to southeast Turkey and that the 235 people were held on charges of “spreading terror group propaganda” over social media and acting on behalf of the PKK.
Many of those detained were members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), parliament’s second-biggest opposition grouping, which President Tayyip Erdogan and the government accuse of links to the PKK.
In a statement on Sunday the HDP said it “harshly condemned” the Istanbul attacks and expressed condolences for the victims.
The HDP’s leaders and several thousand of its members have been arrested pending trial over the past year, drawing criticism from Western allies. The HDP, which last year became the first Kurdish party to enter parliament, denies direct links to militants.
Around dawn, about 500 police, backed by armored vehicles and a helicopter, launched an operation in the southern city of Adana and detained 25 HDP officials there, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Counter-terror police in Istanbul separately took into custody 20 HDP officials, including its provincial head, and carried out searches including the party’s main offices in the city, Anadolu said. The top HDP official in Ankara was among 17 people from the party held in raids there.
» The new Deputy Governor of the Central Bank begins his duties
» Sarwa Abdel Wahed: The federal government sent 400 billion to the region, but the amount "disappeare
» KTFA Wed. Night CC "They Added More to the Whale Song" 3-22-2023
» Al-Sudani directs the allocation of funds for farmers within the agricultural plan
» Al-Sudani invites Turkish businessmen to settle their industrial and commercial activities in Al-Faw
» Al-Rafidain announces the establishment of a mechanism regarding the clearance of the employee who i
» Parliamentary Oil: The price of oil in the budget is high and puts the government in an awkward posi
» Advisor to the Prime Minister explains the reason for the high prices of commodities and foodstuffs
» Parliamentary Health reveals four laws expected to be passed to develop the sector
» Miserable performance and public frustration.. Al-Halbousi wasted the most embarrassing period in Ir
» A new plan to increase domestic production and export the surplus outside Iraq
» A deputy calls on Parliament to cancel all "Baathist" laws
» They are honest: do not compromise and compromise on the American presence in the country
» Parliamentary Finance: Efforts to include allocations for the general population census in the 2023
» Parliamentarian: The tripartite budget has not yet reached the parliament committees
» A parliamentary agreement to prevent foreign companies from supervising voter vote servers
» Parliamentary Finance sets the official date for the start of the marathon budget talks
» Al-Toki clarifies the essence of the dispute over the electoral law
» The continued rise in the exchange rate of the dollar...concern in the markets and exhaustion of the
» An economist explains the importance of the railway link between Faw and Ankara
» Central bank sales exceed $ 261 million
» The Ministry of Oil begins experimenting with electronic payment at fuel filling stations
» Agriculture launches the electronic card project
» Planning continues the implementation of the large Diwaniyah sewage project, and the completion rate
» The land fleet transports (34,554) tons of local wheat for the Ministry of Commerce
» Integrity seizes a network of 25 employees accused of wasting 23.3 billion Iraqi dinars
» Transportation proceeds to cover one of the important streets in the ports of Umm Qasr
» Activists launch a sit-in campaign in front of the House of Representatives, in rejection of St. Leg
» Al-Sadr prevents his aids from traveling outside Iraq!
» The House of Representatives reveals procedures to solve the problem of canceled contracts
» State of law reveals developments in the election law
» Deputy: Al-Sudani is determined to expel the PKK from Nineveh
» Al-Sudani's advisor: The cash leakage generated an illegal market that deals with usury and interest
» Al-Mandalawi: Iraq is keen on the strength of its regional and international relations
» Parliamentary Committee: Investment commissions are "tolerant" with investors
» Integrity recovers two trillion dinars over the past year
» Parliamentary Education: The salaries of the lecturers are insured
» Oriented to reduce energy waste and stress collection
» 5 regions in Baghdad within the service effort
» Al-Halbousi discusses the upcoming elections
» The President of the Republic: Iraq is implementing a strict water management plan
» Al-Sudani and Erdogan launch a global strategic project
» Iraq as Vice-Chairman of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical W
» Electricity adopts Chinese smart meters
» Nabil Jassim: The need to formulate a new discourse to regulate public broadcasting
» Al-Sudani: Iraqi-Turkish committees to secure fair water shares
» Parliamentary efforts to legislate the industrial investment law
» The Relief and Development Association launches the e-Donate platform
» Baghdad - Ankara
» Al-Muthanna Governorate tops the list of poverty in Iraq
» Education: Hundreds of schools await completion
» Calls for the development of new provinces in the country
» 77 bill stalled on the House table
» A qualitative leap for civil defense in 2023
» The central bank raises its sales to 213 million dollars
» Kufa Cement achieves a qualitative leap in production
» Claims to put a fixed item in the budget to face disasters and crises
» Justice comments on the amnesty law and clarifies its powers
» Decrease in oil prices.. Brent records 75.89 dollars per barrel
» Basra Gas reveals its future plans: We will stop 91% of the burning gas
» Central bank sales increased to more than 261 million dollars
» Former Iraqi Minister of Education: The 3-year budget is a smart move
» How Iraq's tripartite budget plan paves the way for a more stable economic and political future
» Iraq announces coordination with the countries of the region to confront climate change
» Al-Sadr directs eight prominent leaders not to travel within thirty days, and indicates that “import
» Justice comments on the amnesty law and clarifies its powers
» Iraq condemns the statements of the Israeli Minister of Finance regarding the Palestinian people
» The decline in the exchange rates of the dollar with the closure of the Baghdad Stock Exchange
» Adviser to the Ministry of Immigration participates in the closing conference on the Local Peace Agr
» A parliamentary split over the “age of the budget,” and a party objects to making it for three years
» Government measures related to the month of Ramadan, including reducing working hours
» The Independents are waving escalation against St. Lego's pass
» Chief of Integrity: Investigations of the theft of the century are ongoing and we are keen on their
» Government advisor: tangible improvement in the economy.. and directed to support investment
» The factions back down from "expelling the Turkish forces" in exchange for one month of water releas
» Parliamentary Education: The salaries of the lecturers are insured
» Tajikistan expresses its desire to open an embassy in Baghdad
» Deputy: Parliament has about 77 law proposals and is on the verge of enacting them
» Deputy: Passing the budget in Parliament requires consensus among all political parties
» On charges of corruption... a parliamentarian sets an "important" condition for holding Al-Kazemi an
» The President of the Republic: 40% of Iraq's lands are threatened by desertification due to the poli
» American newspaper: Kurdish parties are the biggest beneficiaries of the US invasion of Iraq
» What is the relationship of the "dry canal" with Turkey to the silk project?.. Al-Fatlawi answers
» The decree details the paragraphs of the budget...imaginary numbers in revenues and deficits
» Iraq accedes to Convention 102 on minimum standards for social security
» Parliamentary confirmations to make amendments to the budget related to the canceled contracts
» Al-Sudani: Iraq is serious today in expanding and developing aspects of cooperation with Turkey
» Iraq stresses the importance of activating the terms and paragraphs of the strategic partnership agr
» The Minister of Finance is discussing with a representative delegation the mechanisms of joint coord
» Chihoud: Al-Sudani's regional tours will put Iraq on the right track in improving and investing in i
» Economist: The Sudanese have moved away from the politics of arming with Turkey
» Oil: We aim to increase refining capacity through the implementation of a number of investment refin
» Al-Sudani reveals the details of his meeting with Turkish investors: This is about money transfers
» Iraq launches an appeal to the United Nations: We are facing the worst water crisis in our modern hi
» Electricity: The rise in Iranian gas releases to 25 million will contribute to the stability of proc
» The industry talks about a quantum leap in local cement production
» Iraq's ports are waiting for the largest floating book fair
» The Minister of Labor announces Iraq's accession to an agreement related to the social security stan