ANKARA, Sept 9 (AFP) - Police in eastern Turkey have detained 19 people, including a former mayor, on suspicion of aiding and abetting armed Kurdish rebels, police said in a statement.
The arrests were made in the province of Tunceli after a militant from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) mentioned names in his testimony, according to the statement, carried by Anatolia news agency.
Among those detained was a former mayor of Tunceli, Hasan Korkmaz, and the head of the province's chamber of commerce and industry, Ali Asker Guler.
The PKK, now also known as KONGRA-GEL, ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire with the government on June 1, raising tensions in the country's predominantly Kurdish eastern and southeastern regions.
Some 37,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the region in 1984.