This article was posted on ARA News on November 29, 2016. Written by Wladimir van Wilgenburg.
The Turkish government is accused of planning plots to kill Kurdish officials abroad.
The German media reported that the state prosecutor’s office in Bremen had initiated an investigation into a Turkish agent conspiring to kill two people active in the Kurdish community outside Turkey.
One of alleged targets of the murder plot was Yüksel Koc, a Kurdish activist based in Bremen. The second was Remzi Kartal, who lives in Brussels and is the chair of the Kurdish organization Kongra-Gel, reported The Local newspaper.
Moreover, the semi-official news agency of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), ANHA, said on Monday that Turkey has been planning to assassinate Kurdish officials from Rojava in Europe, including Salih Muslim, the co-head of the PYD party.
Adem Uzun, the executive member of the Kurdistan National Congress (KNK) confirmed it. “About Bremen, we do have details on what happened, it is true,” he told ARA News.
However, assassination plots against Syrian Kurdish officials have not been confirmed yet.
“I can say this claim is highly questionable. Turkey is not interested to like the aggressor in the conflict. The killing of Muslim even won’t serve Turkish goals. I can say for sure,” Ali Ozkok, an independent Turkish analyst said.
“Ankara respects PYD presence east of the Euphrates. So we can conclude Turkey is not looking for a total war against PYD as it pursues regarding the official brand of PKK, which operates in Turkey and Iraq,” Ozkok told ARA News. “Turkey’s strategy towards the PYD is to contain its growing influence and to keep the three PYD cantons on the Turkish border divided,” he added.
According to the pro-PYD ANHA agency, the Turkish intelligence service National Intelligence Organization (MIT) was planning to carry out assassinations against Syrian Kurdish politicians in northern Syria and Europe.
“According to the sources, the assassination plan targeted the co-Chair of PYD Salih Muslim during his visit to Europe, but Turkey withdrew its agents as soon as information was leaked to intelligence of two European states. The agents were not Turks or Syrians, rather they were assigned by the Turkish MIT, releasing an arrest warrant of Muslim came after the plan was unveiled,” ANHA reported.
This is not the first time that the Turkish intelligence service is accused of carrying out murder plots against Kurdish officials linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
French investigators have found that Turkey’s secret services were probably involved in the murder of three Kurdish women activists in Paris in 2013.
The Turkish suspect Omer Guney was suspected of murdering Sakine Cansiz, 54, a high-ranking PKK member, and Fidan Dogan, 29, and Leyla Seylemez, 25, at a Kurdish culutral centre in Paris in 2013.
Moreover, in August just before Turkey launched the Euphrates Shield operation backing Syrian rebel groups to attack both Kurds and ISIS in northern Aleppo –with the objective of preventing the Kurds from uniting the cantons of Efrin, Kobani and Cezire– the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) accused the Turkish intelligence service of killing Abdulsettar Al-Cadiri, commander of the SDF-linked Jarablus Military Council. Turkey has so far not responded to the allegations.
Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg | Source: ARA News
