ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Turkish government has arrested more than 300 people, including the head and deputy heads of two pro-Kurdish parties, in its ongoing crackdown on online criticism of its Afrin operation. Leyla Guven, the outspoken co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (KCD), a pro-Kurdish party, was arrested on Wednesday after being detained for nine days. In a tweet on Wednesday the party branded the ruling “unjust.” Mehmet Turkmen, the deputy chair of the Labor Party (EMEP), was jailed on Wednesday accused of distributing “terror propaganda” after being captured on Sunday, Burgum, a left-leaning Istanbul daily newspaper, has reported. EMEP is a pro-Kurdish party, which split from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in 2014. The Turkish interior ministry announced on Monday it had arrested 311 people for “propagating for terrorism on social media” in relation to Ankara’s military intervention against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, the so-called Operation Olive Branch. Twenty-seven people were arrested in the city of Agri in eastern Turkey on Tuesday for “opposing Operation Olive Branch” and for allegedly sharing materials promoting the PKK, according to a statement from the Agri governor’s office. Ten other people have been arrested in Eskisehir, Antalya and Bursa provinces in the west of the country on the same charges, Anadolu has reported. The Turkish government has been criticized for its crackdown on Kurdish political entities, particularly the HDP. Jailed HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtas, then co-chair Figen Yuksekdag, and 10 other HDP MPs were detained in a round-up on November 4, 2016, as part of an investigation of supporting "terrorism" and Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the PKK. Demirtas announced in early January that he will not stand as a candidate for HDP’s party congress on February 11. In May 2016, the Turkish parliament voted to lift immunity from a select group of MPs, including many HDP members facing terrorism charges for alleged ties with the PKK. Ankara conflates the YPG with the PKK, which has waged a nearly three-decade long, and sometimes armed, struggle against the Turkish state seeking greater cultural, political, and minority rights. The YPG denies any organic links to the PKK. The YPG has fought ISIS throughout northern Syria as part of the US-led international anti-ISIS coalition’s partnered ground forces. The crackdown hasn’t been limited to Kurdish entities. Eleven members of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA), including its chairman, Dr. Rashit Tukel, have been arrested since Tuesday. They have been arrested on “terrorism charges,” according to the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA). Three more have pending arrest warrants. The TMA had condemned the Afrin operation on Friday and called for peace. “Any clash, any war, by paving the way to irrecoverable issues in terms of physical, spiritual, social and environmental health, will also bring a humanitarian drama,” the group said in a statement on its website. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the TMA of being “terrorist-lovers” and questioned their “silence” on the activities of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist organization. The TMA hit back, insisting their opposition to the war is an act of “patriotism.” Turkey, along with its so-called Free Syrian Army proxies, launched its assault on Kurdish-controlled Afrin in Syria on January 21.
