ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish authorities detain 311 people suspected of disseminating “terror propaganda” over Ankara’s offensive against a Kurdish militia in Syria, the country’s interior ministry says.
The suspects have been taken into custody since the operation against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia began on January 20.
Ankara views the YPG as a “terrorist” offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
The operation, supporting Syrian rebels with Turkish ground troops and air strikes, seeks to eliminate the YPG from its western enclave of Afrin in Syria close to the Turkish border.
Although the interior ministry does not give details, police raids have taken place across the country, from Izmir on the Aegean Sea to Igdir and Van in the east.
Rights groups have expressed renewed concerns over freedom of expression in Turkey. Human Rights Watch last week criticized Ankara’s “intolerance of criticism.”
— AFP
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