Turkish security forces arrested two senior figures linked to the far-left DHKP-C terrorist group, according to a security source.
Yasemin Karadağ, a so-called senior member of the group responsible for operations in Turkey, and Yeter Gönül Aydın, a member responsible for the group’s officers, were nabbed in Istanbul, said the source on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
The anti-terror teams determined that Karadağ – who has been arrested many times since 1992, stayed behind bars for 19 years and was released in August 2020 – was assigned to be responsible for operations in the country.
She was allegedly promoted to the position by the terror group after Caferi Sadık Eroğlu, who had been in the gray category of the Interior Ministry’s wanted terrorist list, was remanded last month.
Aydın, who also went to prison three times since 2000, was also determined to be in a so-called senior position.
Aydın was nabbed from a cell house and Karadağ from her house, the source said.
The DHKP-C is responsible for a number of terrorist attacks in Turkey, including a 2013 attack on the U.S. embassy in Ankara in which a Turkish security guard was martyred.
The group is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU.
The terrorist group pursues a far-left ideology and has been actively carrying out attacks and assassinations in the country since the 1980s, but its campaign of violence hit a snag when faced with Turkey’s barrage of anti-terror operations. The DHKP-C’s most high-profile attacks include a suicide bombing that targeted the U.S. Embassy in the capital Ankara in 2013 and the killing of a prosecutor in an Istanbul courthouse in 2015.
