UPDATE - Turkey: 39 suspects nabbed over alleged links to PKK

UPDATES WITH OPERATION IN KOCAELI, YALOVA, REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE

By Tahir Turan Eroglu, Sitki Yildiz and Emre Ilikan

KOCAELI/YALOVA/VAN, Turkey (AA) - Turkish forces arrested 39 suspects over alleged links to the PKK/KCK terrorist organization, security sources said on Sunday.

Anti-terror police teams in the eastern Van province arrested 27 suspects who were allegedly in preparation of violent protests with stones, Molotov cocktails, fireworks, and handmade explosives, on the anniversary of PKK ringleader Abdullah Ocalan's capture, according to a statement by the provincial police department.

Ocalan was captured on Feb. 15, 1999, and remains the sole inmate of an island prison off Istanbul since his capture.

The suspects were nabbed in raids to different addresses, where blank guns, materials used in explosives, and many digital materials were seized in simultaneous operations.

In Turkey’s northwestern Kocaeli province, gendarmerie teams held simultaneous operations against the suspects who were found propagating the message of the terrorist organization PKK/KCK.

During the operation, four suspects were held, while digital materials and banned publications were seized.

In another operation in northwestern Yalova province, police teams arrested eight suspects, who were found propagating for the terrorist organization PKK/KCK, in raids at different addresses.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

*Writing by Havva Kara Aydin in Ankara