30 Arrested In Turkey For Links To Kurdish Rebels - Report
ANKARA (AFP)--Turkish authorities arrested around 30 people, most of them
teachers, Thursday in a new sweep across the country against people with
suspected links to Kurdish rebels, Anatolia news agency reported.
Police found material belonging to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or
PKK, during searches of suspects' homes, the agency said.
The arrests took place in Ankara, Istanbul, the eastern town of Van and the
western towns of Izmir and Manisa.
Last month dozens of people were arrested over their suspected collusion with
the PKK in Turkey's majority-Kurdish southeast. Many of those arrested in April
included members of Turkey's main pro-Kurdish political party, the Party for a
Democratic Society, or DTP, which holds 21 of the Turkish parliament's 550
seats.
The DTP could be banned by the constitutional court, which is currently
investigating allegations it is cooperating with the PKK.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the world, has
waged an armed campaign for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish east and
southeast since 1984, in a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-28-090325ET
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