Rome , Italy ( CNN ) -- Police arrested 11 people in central and northern Italy on Friday on suspicion of recruiting Kurds to join the Kurdistan Workers ' Party , or PKK -- the outlawed separatist group fighting for a homeland in southeastern Turkey . Of those arrested , 10 are Kurdish -- mostly from Turkey -- and one is an Italian with a criminal record , Italian authorities said . Searches related to 16 others are under way , according to police . This comes as a two-year investigation led to the dismantling of three camps in Italy and one in France to train recruits for the PKK . The camps in Italy were old , isolated farm houses . In one camp , authorities found 70 people being indoctrinated into the PKK . An investigation into their identifications is ongoing . The Kurds are Turkey 's largest ethnic minority , numbering more then 12 million people . For many years , the Turkish state denied their existence , calling them `` mountain Turks . '' The PKK has been locked in a bloody conflict with Turkey since the 1980s , and more than 30,000 people , mostly ethnic Kurds , have been killed in the conflict . Full coverage in Turkish : CNN Turk . The international community , including the United States and the European Union , considers the PKK a terrorist organization . The rebel group continues to operate in Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq , and the Turkish military has in the past bombed PKK targets around Iraq 's border with Turkey . CNN 's Hada Messia contributed to this report .
Police found training camps in Italy and France ; suspects arrested in Venice . 11 arrested on suspicion of having terrorism ties to the outlawed PKK . PKK has waged decades-old separatist campaign in southeastern Turkey .