Turkey: 205 on Trial for Alleged Links to Kurdish Rebels

An Istanbul court on Monday began hearing a high-profile trial on the alleged links between some 200 suspects and outlawed Kurdish rebels, Anatolia news agency reported.

A total of 205 people, 140 of them arrested, stood accused of links with the Union of Kurdistan Communities, known as KCK, which authorities say is the urban wing of the outlawed rebels, The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Prosecutors accuse the defendants, including intellectuals, journalists and academicians, of "aiding terrorism" and for putting out "separatist propaganda," according to Anatolia.

Suspects include members of Turkey's main Kurdish political organization, Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), as well as prominent academic Busra Ersanli and publisher Ragip Zarakolu.

The Istanbul trial is part of a wider crackdown that began in 2009. Since then, 700 people have been arrested pending trial over alleged links to KCK, according to government figures.

Critics dispute the data, saying the actual number of people arrested across the country soar beyond 3,500.

Ankara says the KCK wants to replace Turkish government institutions in the southeastern Anatolia region, which is majority Kurd, with its own political structures.

Turkey, the European Union and the United States regard the PKK as a terrorist organization.