Turkish police have launched a sweeping operation targeting left-wing groups in İstanbul and several other provinces, issuing detention warrants for 110 people including politicians and journalists, Turkish Minute reported.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement on Tuesday that the people being sought were linked to a range of socialist and communist organizations, including the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF), the Socialist Women’s Assemblies (SKM), the Kaktüs Young Women’s Association, the Communist Youth Organization (KGÖ), the Communist Women’s Organization (KKÖ), the Etkin News Agency (ETHA), the High School Students’ Union (LÖB), the BEKSAV arts and culture foundation and the Law Office of the Oppressed (EHB).
The prosecutor’s office said the investigation was aimed at exposing the outlawed Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), which Turkey classifies as a terrorist organization.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement on X that the operations were carried out in İstanbul and 22 other provinces, adding that 96 suspects had been detained so far.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) condemned the detentions, saying police raids had targeted several institutions, including the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP), a small leftist-party, as well as trade unions and civil society groups.
Among those detained are former MP and ESP Co-Chair Murat Çepni and ETHA journalists Nadiye Gürbüz, Pınar Gayıp, Elif Bayburt, Müslüm Koyun and Züleyha Müldür as well as environmentalists and union members.
The investigation is based on witness statements, digital material obtained in earlier operations, reports from the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) and data from online meetings held via Google Meet.
Police reportedly forced entry into the organizations’ offices during the raids and seized technical equipment. Authorities also imposed a 24-hour restriction on detainees’ access to legal counsel.
The DEM Party described the operation as part of an unacceptable government policy of using the judiciary to suppress socialists and opposition voices, calling for the immediate release of those taken into custody.
The DEM Party also urged authorities to end detentions that it said are linked to recent protests against the Syrian government’s military operations in Rojava, the Kurdish-led region of northern Syria.
The detentions come amid renewed violence in northeastern Syria. Syrian government forces launched an operation on January 6 that pushed into areas long held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), sparking weeks of clashes.
In response, protests have recently erupted in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast. Anger has grown as the Syrian government continued its offensive against Kurdish-led forces, raising tensions in several towns on the Turkish-Syrian border.
On January 30 the Syrian government and Kurdish forces reached a broader agreement to gradually integrate Kurdish military and civilian institutions into the state, a development that appeared to ease tensions somewhat after weeks of violence.
Turkey, the main foreign backer of Syria’s transitional authorities since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024, has openly supported Damascus’s push to dismantle Kurdish-led self-rule along its border. Ankara views the SDF as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it designates as a terrorist organization.
