REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, ISTANBUL -- Turkish counter-terror police detained 10 people including academic Fikret Baskaya early on Monday in an operation targeting members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Baris Yarkadas, a lawmaker from the main opposition CHP, wrote on Twitter that Baskaya, 77, had been detained at his home in the capital Ankara at 6.30 am (0330 GMT) and that police had seized some of his personal possessions.

Anadolu said arrest warrants had been issued for a total of 17 people on allegations of aiding the PKK and spreading the group's propaganda on social media.

Baskaya is a university lecturer and author.

The PKK launched a separatist insurgency in southeast Turkey in 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict. It is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union.

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