Turkish Interior Ministry on 5 February announced a series of statistics, including the number of people detained for “terror propaganda online.”
According to the ministry's statement, 449 suspects were taken into police custody for their tweets or other social media posts criticizing Turkey’s military operation in the Syrian enclave of Afrin which has been going on since 20 January. The Turkish government has so far classified most criticism as “terror propaganda.”
In addition to social media users, various journalists and politicians were detained for speaking about the operation in Afrin. Most recently, 11 doctors from the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) were detained after the organization issues a statement criticizing the military campaign . They were all released after six days in custody.
The ministry didn’t say how many of the detentions turned into arrests -- or pre-trial detention.
