Police detains seven in operations against PKK youth branch

Hakkari Police Department counterterrorism units simultaneously raided several locations. Seven people were detained for alleged links to the terrorist organization's youth branch, which organizes illegal demonstrations, with participants often attacking security units and civilians with Molotov cocktails and rocks. The suspects were reportedly sent to the Hakkari Police Department to be interrogated.

The PKK, which is fighting for autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish Southeast, was founded on Marxist ideology. Turkey has been conducting airstrikes on PKK camps in Iraq's northern mountains and inside Turkey since August of last year, following an increase in attacks on Turkish troops and civilians by the PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy for the Southeast since 1984.

The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The group is labeled a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, which has supplied Predator drones to assist Turkey.