Police raided 123 addresses in 17 cities throughout the country and arrested 33 out of 49 suspects, the Istanbul prosecutor's office said.

The operation included a raid on the Ankara office of Leyla Zana, a Kurdish lawmaker known for her pro-independence views, NTV television channel said earlier but the Istanbul prosecutor's office denied the report.

The main target was the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which is represented in parliament. Its offices in Diyarbakir, the main city in the Kurdish-majority southeast, were raided, media reports said.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the party, claimed that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government was behind the raids.

"We cannot talk about a state or a government in a place where no law exists," Demirtas was quoted as saying by NTV.

The arrested include former BDP lawmaker Fatma Kurtulan and Tuncer Bakirhan, a deputy of now-defunct pro-Kurdish party DEHAP, Anatolia news agency said.

The drive is part of a crackdown on the banned Kudish Communities Union (KCK), suspected to be the political wing of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkish authorities accuse the group of trying to topple state institutions in the south and southeast and trying to foment a rebellion.

Since 2009, 700 people -- including lawmakers, intellectuals and mayors -- have been arrested for alleged links to the KCK, according to the government. Kurdish circles however put the number at around 3,500.

Zana had recently called for a referendum to determine the future of Kurds in Turkey, saying: "In the beginning, we were demanding autonomy. Today, the Kurds think that it is not enough."

Kurds comprise about 12 million of Turkey's estimated 73 million people.

The PKK took up arms in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.