Turkish authorities detained an Australian woman at Istanbul Airport last week for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Turkish security source said on Tuesday.
Cigdem Aslan was apprehended at Istanbul airport on Sept. 15 © Mena Today
Turkish authorities detained an Australian woman at Istanbul Airport last week for alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Turkish security source said on Tuesday.
Cigdem Aslan was apprehended at the airport on Sept. 15 as she prepared to board a flight to Australia, the source said.
Following her arrest, she appeared in an Istanbul court on Sept. 18 and was jailed pending trial for alleged "involvement in PKK propaganda in Australia and participation in events organised by groups aligned with the militant organisation."
Australia has said it is providing assistance to a woman in Turkey but it did not provide any more details.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union, began a separatist insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984. It has since moderated its goals to seeking greater Kurdish rights and limited autonomy in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which is now focused in northern Iraq.
Reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Alasdair Pal in Sydney
Turkey has decided to allow parliament's pro-Kurdish party to hold talks with militant leader Abdullah Ocalan on his island prison, the pro-government Sabah newspaper reported on Thursday, setting up the first such visit in nearly a decade.
Expectations of a Turkish central bank rate cut strengthened on Wednesday after a less-than-requested minimum wage hike, economists said, as it showed the government's determination to reach disinflation targets.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Kurdish militants in Syria will either lay down their weapons or "be buried", amid hostilities between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the militants since the fall of Bashar al-Assad this month.
To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.
Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.