It said the man, identified only as Mehmet A., was detained late Sunday in the southern town of Adana.

He is accused of recruiting PKK militants, the agency said.

PKK leader Ocalan was arrested in 1999. He is now serving a life sentence on the north-western island of Imrali for "separatism" and "treason".

Some 37,000 people have been killed since 1984 when the rebels first took up arms for self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey.