29 October 2016•Update: 31 October 2016
By, Mustafa Yıldırım-Halil Şahin, Duygu Yener-Sertaç Bulur
IZMIR, Turkey
Twelve suspected members of the youth wing of the terrorist group PKK have been arrested Saturday in the western Turkish province of Izmir, security forces said.
Police received information that the suspected terrorists were preparing to target security forces with improvised explosive devices on Saturday, during celebrations for Turkey's Republic Day, security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
The preparations for an attack may have been linked to the arrest of Diyarbakir mayor Gultan Kisanak, the security sources said.
The mayor of southeastern Turkey’s largest city was arrested late Tuesday as part of an anti-terrorism investigation.
The Chief Prosecutor's Office in Diyarbakir said in a statement Wednesday that the mayor was arrested on charges of “being a member of an armed terrorist group”.
Materials used for making bombs were also found during the operation in Izmir, the security sources added.
In a separate operation, six PKK and six Daesh members were arrested in the capital Ankara according to the Ankara Police Department.
The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year.
Since then, more than 700 security force members have been martyred and around 8,000 PKK terrorists killed or apprehended.
