Two reporters for the Turkish branch of German newspaper Tageszeitung were detained and had their homes searched in Ankara. The arrests were part of a wider clampdown on critics of Turkey's military operation in Syria.
Image: DW/J. Hahn
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The German daily Tagezeitung said on Tuesday that journalists from its Turkish publication Taz Gazete had been arrested by anti-terror police.
"Among them are our writer Hayri Demir and Sibel Hurtas of Arti Gercek," the statement continued, "in the same context the journalist Idris Yilmaz was arrested in Van and Nurcan Baysas and Ishak Karatas were detained in Istanbul."
Taz Gazete journalist Ali Celikkan told DW that Demir and Hurtas were arrested shortly before midnight "for posting information on social media from local sources in Afrin that contained alternative rhetoric to that of the government."
"They were also hosting online discussions featuring activists and lawmakers that are against the war."
According to Celikkan, Taz Gazete contributor Demir and Hurtas are in a three-day detention period and have not been formally arrested, but remain under suspicion of "inciting the people to violence."
"This is part of a larger wave of arrests of anyone who speaks out about peace. It's hard to pinpoint how many have been detained, but it's at least 50."
"Everyone is worried they might be next," said Celikkan.
Ugar Guc, a Turkish journalist critical of the government, told DW he knew of five journalists who were detained on Monday for posting tweets critical of the Afrin operation.
"There are already more than 150 journalists in jail in Turkey and they are being prosecuted because of the news they made," he said. "If you say on Twitter you are against this war — you might be trialed as well."
DW's Dorian Jones in Istanbul said that Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called journalists to a meeting on Sunday to lay out a 15-point plan on how the operation in Afrin should be covered in order to quash any criticism of the move.
The Turkish public is generally uninformed about the mission in Syria and has limited access to information, according to Guc.
"Nobody really knows what is going on in Afrin right now," he said. "People only know what is being broadcast on pro-government channels."
'Terror propaganda'
There were dozens of arrests made on Monday night and early Tuesday over opposition to the Afrin mission, which were seen as part of a wider crackdown on press freedom in Turkey. On Monday, Ankara announced that rallies and protests were temporarily banned in the capital until the Afrin mission is finished.
Who's fighting in the Syria conflict?
Syria's civil war erupted out of the Arab Spring protests that swept much of the Middle East and North Africa in 2011. The conflict has since drawn in multiple warring factions from around the world.
Image: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
War with no end
Syria has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2011 after Syrian President Bashar Assad lost control over large parts of the country to multiple revolutionary groups. The conflict has since drawn in foreign powers and brought misery and death to Syrians.
Image: picture alliance/abaca/A. Al-Bushy
The dictator
Syria's army, officially known as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is fighting to restore the president's rule over the entire country. The SAA has been fighting alongside a number of pro-Assad militias such as the National Defense Force and has cooperated with military advisors from Russia and Iran, which back Assad.
Turkey, which is also part of the US-led coalition against IS, has actively supported rebels opposed to Assad. It has a tense relationship with its American allies over US cooperation with Kurdish fighters, who Ankara says are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighting in Turkey. Turkey has launched multiple military offensives targeting Kurdish militias.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/L. Pitarakis
The eastern guardian
The Kremlin has proven to be a powerful friend to Assad. Russian air power and ground troops officially joined the fight in September 2015 after years of supplying the Syrian army. Moscow has come under fire from the international community for the high number of civilian casualties during its airstrikes. However, Russia's intervention turned the tide in war in favor of Assad.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Tass/M. Metzel
The western allies
A US-led coalition of more than 50 countries, including Germany, began targeting IS and other terrorist targets with airstrikes in late 2014. The anti-IS coalition has dealt major setbacks to the militant group. The US has more than a thousand special forces in the country backing the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/A.Brandon
The rebels
The Free Syrian Army grew out of protests against the Assad regime that eventually turned violent. Along with other non-jihadist rebel groups, it seeks the ouster of President Assad and democratic elections. After suffering a number of defeats, many of its members defected to hardline militant groups. It garnered some support from the US and Turkey, but its strength has been greatly diminished.
Image: Reuters
The resistance
Fighting between Syrian Kurds and Islamists has become its own conflict. The US-led coalition against the "Islamic State" has backed the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias. The Kurdish YPG militia is the main component of the SDF. The Kurds have had a tacit understanding with Assad.
Image: Getty Images/A. Sik
The new jihadists
"Islamic State" (IS) took advantage of regional chaos to capture vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Seeking to establish its own "caliphate," IS has become infamous for its fundamentalist brand of Islam and its mass atrocities. IS is on the brink of defeat after the US and Russia led separate military campaigns against the militant group.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo
The old jihadists
IS is not the only terrorist group that has ravaged Syria. A number of jihadist militant groups are fighting in the conflict, warring against various rebel factions and the Assad regime. One of the main jihadist factions is Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which controls most of Idlib province and has ties with al-Qaeda.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Nusra Front on Twitter
The Persian shadow
Iran has supported Syria, its only Arab ally, for decades. Eager to maintain its ally, Tehran has provided Damascus with strategic assistance, military training and ground troops when the conflict emerged in 2011. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah also supports the Assad regime, fighting alongside Iranian forces and paramilitary groups in the country.
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Officials said they were trying to stop the spread of "terror propaganda." Besides the journalists, many pro-Kurdish activists were detained, including the head of the Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the city of Izmir.
Emma Sinclair-Webb, the head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Turkey, condemned the arrest of peace advocates, especially human rights activist Nurcan Baysal.
"She has been detained in connection with her tweets calling for peace and condemning the Turkish government’s military incursion in the northwest Syrian enclave of Afrin," Sinclair-Webb wrote in a statement. Baysal was arrested for advocating violence, but, as HRW points out, "nothing in Baysal’s tweets advocates violence. If anything, it’s the opposite."
