Turkey's interior ministry released a statement on Monday saying 449 people have been arrested for allegedly posting "terror propaganda" on social media. It said a further 124 have been detained for participating in protests against the military operation.
"There are laws that prohibit the glorification of terrorism, support for terrorism through propaganda and media. The prosecutors are implementing the laws," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, told reporters in Istanbul this weekend.
The Turkish government has been criticized for its crackdown on Kurdish political organizations, particularly the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
The crackdown, however, has not been limited to Kurdish entities.
Members of the Turkish Medical Association (TMA), including its chairman, Dr. Rashit Tukel, were arrested last week on "terrorism charges."
The TMA had condemned the Afrin operation 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.
Erdogan accused the TMA of being "terrorist-lovers" and questioned their "silence" on the activities of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a named terrorist organization in Turkey that has waged a nearly three-decade long, and sometimes armed, struggle against the Turkish state seeking greater cultural, political, and minority rights.
The TMA hit back, insisting their opposition to the war is an act of "patriotism."
Turkey, along with its Free Syrian Army proxies, launched its assault on Kurdish-controlled Afrin in northern Syria with the stated aim of clearing the mostly-Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) from its border. Ankara conflates the YPG with the PKK; a link they deny.
The YPG has fought ISIS throughout northern Syria as part of the US-led international coalition.
