ISTANBUL (AP) — An Australian women was arrested in Turkey over her alleged links to a Kurdish militant group in a joint operation by anti-terrorist police and intelligence officers, Turkish media said.
Cigdem Aslan, 51, was detained at Istanbul airport after an investigation found she was “actively involved in the Australian structure of the terrorist organization,” according to a report by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Anadolu, citing unnamed security sources, did not specify the nature of her alleged involvement with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. She was brought before a court and sent to prison awaiting trial.
The PKK has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. The conflict has led to tens of thousands of deaths and the group is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, the European Union and Australia.
The Anadolu report said she was arrested as she waited to board a plane for Australia and had been followed by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, or MIT. It did not specify when she was initially detained.
Anadolu said Saturday that Aslan had had contact with “high-level” PKK members. The agency’s report included photographs purportedly showing Aslan posing in front of a PKK flag and portrait of the group’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
According to the English-language Daily Sabah newspaper, Aslan was traveling under a passport in the name of Lenna Aslan. It said she worked as the co-chair of a “PKK-linked association in Australia and was active in events organized by a Melbourne-based center serving as a mouthpiece of the terrorist group.”
The newspaper said she had been involved in protests against Turkey’s cross-border operations against the PKK. Turkish troops are involved in an ongoing campaign against the PKK in northern Iraq and Ankara frequently carries out airstrikes in northern Syria against an associated group known as the People’s Defense Units, or YPG.
Australian media reported that Aslan is listed as a bilingual health educator by the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health in Melbourne.
Its website says she is a single mother with two daughters and is passionate about “human and women’s rights, community volunteering and advocating for minorities.”
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday it was “providing consular assistance to an Australian woman detained in Turkey.”
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Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia contributed to this report.
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