WAR has been declared on opposition in Turkey, politicians warned today after 282 people were arrested for an operation targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Opposition party members, local mayors, artists and at least three journalists were detained across 51 of the country’s 81 provinces on accusations of providing financial support to the PKK, recruiting members, engaging in propaganda and participating in violent street protests.

The PKK is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies and has led a decades-long insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in the region.

Turkey and the PKK have been involved in talks to resolve the conflict and secure the release of the group’s leader Abdullah Ocalan from indefinite solitary detention.

The latest arrests come amid a widened crackdown on opposition, with alleged terrorism links often used to justify raids. More arrests are expected.

Labour Party (EMEP) said today that its members were among those detained, calling it the “wide-ranging intimidation operation” by the government against opposition following the losses it endured in last year’s local elections.

It said in a statement: “The government, in its panic against the opposition’s progress of common grounds for joint action, has mobilised the state facilities, law enforcement forces and the politicised judiciary in order to regulate the political sphere according to its own interests.

“There is no legal explanation for the detentions.

“All these repressions, the policies of crushing the opposition with the terror [from] the state, are justified by emphasising the discourse of ‘Turkey without terror’ as well as the prospect of a solution to the Kurdish problem.

“The hopes and expectations of the peoples for peace are being trampled upon and a war has been declared against the opposition.”