Kurdish local politician Metin Inci has been arrested in the southern Turkish coastal metropolis of Mersin. The representative of the provincial association of the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) is accused of having radicalised a minor in order to recruit her as a fighter for a "terrorist organisation" - meaning the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Inci, who was detained on Tuesday in the course of an "anti-terrorist operation" by Turkish special forces that was accompanied by the media, denies the accusations. During questioning by an examining magistrate at the criminal court of the Mersin district court late on Thursday evening, he rejected them as "untrue", according to his legal counsel. The court ordered pre-trial detention and Inci was transferred to the maximum security prison in Tarsus district.

Two women detained for "YPG membership”

Two women were also detained in Mersin on Friday. The women, whose names are not yet known, were reportedly taken into custody during house searches in the district of Akdeniz, apparently accused of "membership in the YPG". Both women are being held at Mersin police headquarters and no further information is available yet. Ten employees of the Mersin Municipality are also still in custody. They were detained on Thursday on terror charges at the instigation of the far-right party MHP.