Turkey says over 2,500 arrested in crackdown on PKK

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish security forces arrested over 2,500 alleged Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members over the past week, the country’s interior minister announced on Sunday, amid heightened tension with the armed group. 

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that 2,554 alleged members of the PKK were arrested.

Last week, Turkey launched a new operation to arrest alleged PKK members in the country, in response to an attack by the armed group targeting the ministry’s security directorate in Ankara, which wounded two police officers.

Turkish state media reported on Tuesday that Ankara has been monitoring PKK positions in the Kurdistan Region, northern Syria, and within Turkey for 10 months before launching a coordinated operation that led to the arrest of suspected members of the group.

The People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the military arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement from the group.

“This action is an act of legitimate defense against the disregard of human rights that are being trampled on, against national and international laws; against the inhumane practice and policy of isolation that is being implemented in all the jails of Turkey and Kurdistan,” read a statement from HPG.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan labeled the attack as “the last struggle of terrorism.”

The PKK is an armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey and designated a terrorist organization by Ankara.

Hakan Fidan. Turkey’s foreign minister, claimed that the two perpetrators of the Ankara attack entered Turkey from Syria. He warned that all infrastructure and energy facilities linked to the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Rojava will be his country’s “legitimate targets,” indirectly calling on US troops to “stay away” from individuals and facilities linked to the Kurdish group.

Mazloum Abdi, general commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), on the same day, denied Fidan’s claim. 

“Ankara's attack perpetrators haven't passed through our region as Turkish officials claim, and we aren't party to Turkey's internal conflict nor we encourage escalation,” said Abdi in a post on X.