Greek police detain nine suspects over links to banned Turkish group

Greek counter-terrorism police detained nine people in Athens on Tuesday in an investigation connected with a banned Turkish leftist militant group, ahead of a scheduled visit next month by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A police statement said the Turkish nationals – eight men and a woman – were detained in the central Athens areas of Neos Kosmos and Kallithea earlier on Tuesday.

Greek police found bomb-making equipment and detonators during an early-morning raid at three addresses in Athens on Tuesday, they said. Earlier, they said they were testing unspecified material found in jars during the raid. 'Commercial goods, which could potentially be used in making explosive materials' were found, the police statement said.

The investigation is linked to suspects accused of belonging to an armed foreign organisation, not affiliated to Daesh, said sources from the Ministry of Civil Protection.

The detainees are suspected of links with DHKP-C, deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the EU.

No further details were immediately available.

Erdogan's visit, announced Tuesday, is set for December 7-8.

DHKP-C operations 

In 2014, four Turkish men were arrested in Athens on terrorism-related offences in connection with DHKP-C, after a raid on an Athens apartment that uncovered weapons, explosives and detonators. 

The operation followed the arrests of five Turks and three Greeks over a speedboat carrying arms that was intercepted in the Aegean Sea.

Originally founded in the late 1970s as Dev Sol, the Marxist-Leninist DHKP-C is believed responsible for a string of assassinations and bombings in Turkey, including a 2013 suicide bomb attack on the US Embassy in Ankara.