Turkey arrests hundreds 'linked to PKK' after 13 Kurdish guerrilla captives killed

Turkey announced yesterday the arrests of hundreds of people it said were linked to an outlawed Kurdish militant group it earlier accused of executing 13 Turkish captives.

Ankara also summoned the American ambassador after President Recep Tayyip Erodgan expressed anger that the United States did not immediately accept Turkey’s word on Sunday that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) had killed the captured Turkish soldiers and police in a cave in northern Iraq.

The PKK said the prisoners died amid fighting and Turkish air strikes during a military operation by Ankara against the guerrilla group, which uses bases in northern Iraq to fight for Kurdish rights, part of a decades-old insurgency that has killed over 40,000 people.

Washington initially issued a conditional statement condemning the killings, saying that if confirmed then responsibility lay with the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, Britain and the US.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken then told his Turkish counterpart that "PKK terrorists" were responsible for the hostage deaths.

"The Secretary expressed condolences for the deaths of Turkish hostages in northern Iraq and affirmed our view that PKK terrorists bear responsibility," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

But this did not appease President Erdogan, who already enraged by Washington’s support for Kurdish fighters in neighbouring Syria accused his ally of siding with terrorists.

"If we are together with you in Nato, if we are to continue our unity, then you will act sincerely towards us. Then, you will stand with us, not with the terrorists," Mr Erdogan said in an address in the Black Sea city of Rize.

The comments are likely to strain relations already under pressure after Washington sanctioned Turkey in December over its purchase of a Russian missile system.

Mr Erdogan's ire also extended to the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which accused the government of failing to seize earlier opportunities to negotiate the release of the prisoners, some of whom had been held since 2015 after being abducted in southeast Turkey and smuggled to PKK bases in northern Iraq.

On Monday, Turkey's interior ministry said city and district heads of the HDP were among 718 people detained in 40 cities across Turkey for alleged links to the PKK.

HDP MP Garo Paylan said about 150 of his party's members were detained overnight.

He told The Telegraph that the arrests were partly about wounded pride after Turkey failed to rescue any hostages during its military incursion in northern Iraq but also an attack on Turkish democracy.

“Erdogan’s goal is to end hopes for a peace process or a democratic solution to the Kurdish question and to end democracy in Turkey,” Mr Paylan said in a phone call.

President Erdogan's government has targeted the HDP for the past five years, accusing the third largest party in Turkey's parliament of links to the PKK, which it denies.

Elected mayors from the HDP have been dismissed and more than 10,000 members jailed, including former chairman Selahattin Demirtas.

“If they can jail thousands more, the HDP won’t be able to function,” said Mr Paylan, who believes the arrests and accusations of links to the PKK are part of a strategy to reduce the party’s support to below the 10 percent threshold needed to hold seats in parliament.

President Erdogan “wants to rule the country as a dictator for decades and for this he needs to demolish all of Turkey’s institutions,” he said.