Three Kurdish writers have been detained in early-morning house raids in İstanbul and southeastern Turkey, Turkish Minute reported on Wednesday.
Writers Mevlüt Aykoç, Sami Tan and Ronayi Önen were taken into custody in separate police operations on Wednesday morning. Aykoç was detained in İstanbul, Tan in the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa and Önen in Diyarbakır.
Kurdish journalists and writers in Turkey frequently face judicial harassment, stand trial and are sentenced to prison for covering issues related to Kurds and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK (PKK), which is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
The detention of the writers comes at a time when jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan has called on his militant organization to lay down its arms and disband, in a historic statement read out in İstanbul last week that raised hopes about the end of the decades-long conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK.
Öcalan made the call as a result of peace talks with him initiated by far-right leader Devlet Bahçeli and endorsed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan last year.
The detentions also come amid an intensified government crackdown on dissent, with opposition figures, journalists, academics and even astrologers targeted in efforts to suppress criticism and consolidate power.
