Gulizar Tasdemir, 42, is suspected of having joined the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara, the EU and the US, and of having received weapons training at a camp in Iraq, the official Anadolu news agency reported.

She had travelled to Norway to apply for asylum, the report said, but was expelled when her claim was rejected before being arrested on her return to Turkey at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport on Thursday.

According to pro-Kurdish media reports, Tasdemir had applied for asylum in Norway in 2015 and after being refused went to Germany where she made a similar claim that was also rejected. From there, the German authorities sent her back to Norway from where she was deported to Turkey.

When she was stopped in Istanbul, the authorities seized two mobile phones, documents relating to the PKK and photographs of her with top PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence following his capture in 1999, Anadolu added.