Turkish authorities on Friday issued arrest warrants for 82 people, including a mayor, over pro-Kurdish protests six years ago, officials and local media said.

The warrants relate to October 2014 protests in Turkey sparked by the seizure by Islamic State (IS) jihadists of the mainly Kurdish Syrian town of Kobane.

Protesters flooded streets in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast in early October 2014, accusing the Turkish army of standing by as Islamic State besieged Kobani, just across the Syrian border.

The crimes committed during the protests included murder, attempted murder, theft, damaging property, looting, burning the Turkish flag and injuring 326 security officials and 435 citizens.

There was also a warrant for the mayor of the eastern city of Kars, Ayhan Bilgen, Hurriyet daily reported.

Bilgen won the city in 2019 local elections representing the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which is Turkey's second-largest opposition group in the parliament.

Of a total of 65 HDP mayors returned in those elections, 47 have now been replaced by unelected officials, with some detained on terror charges, the party said last month.

Ankara accuses the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group of inciting the demonstrations. It also accuses the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) of links to the PKK and supporting the protests. The HDP, the third largest party in parliament, denies this.

In a statement on Friday, prosecutors in Ankara said arrest warrants were issued over "several calls made to invite the public to the streets and carry out terror acts", adding suspects would be sought in seven provinces.

"The Ankara Prosecutor's Terror Crimes Investigation Bureau has launched an investigation on the PKK terrorist organisation and its so-called executives, as well as certain political party executives and members... and, at the current stage, ordered the detention of 82 suspects," the prosecutor's office said.

Broadcaster NTV and other media said the suspects included HDP members including the mayor of the northeastern Kars province Ayhan Bilgen, former lawmaker Sirri Sureyya Onder, and some party executives, and that some had already been detained.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, has fought against the state in the southeast since 1984. A ceasefire collapsed in 2015.

WION