Turkish police detain 47 PKK terrorists planning attack on Nowruz festival

Police teams in Turkey’s southern province Adana conducted simultaneous raids across 50 locations at dawn on Mar. 16 after receiving intelligence reports that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was preparing to launch a terror attack before the Nowruz festival.

The Special Forces who carried out the operation had backup support from a helicopter, and 47 suspects, including 10 women, were remanded. The raids of the suspects’ houses revealed no arms or munitions, which was followed by the suspects being taken in for questioning.

Police later found out that the location of the arms and munitions brought into Adana from Syria had been changed and that they were being hid in a grassy area. The arms and munitions were due to be taken on the day of Nowruz and used to attack police stations.

Police seized five Kalashnikovs, 88 clips, 32 bullets, 17 hand grenades and 12 hand grenade fuses.

Fingerprints and DNA samples were taken from the seized arms and munitions, and are due to be matched with suspects in order to find the culprits.

The police are continuing to question the 47 suspects in order to find those who brought the arms and munitions into Turkey.

Nowruz, which literally means the “new day” in Persian, is celebrated every year on March 21 mainly in Iran, Afghanistan, India, the Turkic republics in Central Asia and the Caucasian countries in addition to Albania and Macedonia in the Balkans.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. The PKK has been conducting armed violence in the southeastern part of Turkey since 1984. More than 40,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the three-decade long conflict.