A precision strike by Turkish intelligence has eliminated a top member of the PKK terrorist group’s so-called special forces unit in Iraq, security sources said Friday, the latest pressure from Türkiye ahead of an expected announcement by the PKK’s jailed leader.
Murat Keleş, code-named “Berhudan Harun” and wanted in Türkiye on terrorism charges, was targeted by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in the northern Hakurk region, sources said.
The terrorist was marked by MIT as one of the perpetrators of several rocket attacks on Turkish security forces’ vehicles during Operation Trenches, which cracked down on PKK terrorists in Şırnak between 2015-2016.
Intelligence reports found Keleş was organizing shipments of explosives to western metropolitan cities in Türkiye for planned attacks, sources said.
MIT stepped up its operations against terrorist groups abroad in recent years. Counterterrorism operations largely target the PKK and its affiliates. They concentrate on northern parts of Türkiye's neighbors Syria and Iraq, where the terrorist group exploited a security vacuum to operate freely. Turkish intelligence generally carries out precision airstrikes, employing drones, but occasionally, they bring in terrorism suspects alive.
The announcement of Keleş’s elimination comes a day after the counterterrorism service of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said a Turkish drone strike killed three PKK terrorists.
The KRG counterterrorism service's statement said the three PKK members were traveling in two vehicles in the town of Mawat, near the northern Iraqi city of Sulaymaniyah. Two other PKK members were missing following the strike, which also targeted a weapons cache, it said.
Türkiye regularly carries out airstrikes in northern Iraq and has dozens of outposts on Iraqi territory. The PKK operates a stronghold in the Qandil Mountains, which sits roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the Turkish border in Irbil, the KRG’s capital.
Ankara has also battled the YPG in neighboring Syria, who has been allied to the United States and is considered by Türkiye as identical to the PKK.
The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 in a terror campaign that has killed more than 40,000 people. Its jailed leader Abdullah Öcalan is expected soon to make what Türkiye's PKK-affiliated party described this week as a "historic call for a solution to the Kurdish issue.”
Tuncer Bakırhan, co-chair of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), on Tuesday ruled out a date for the call as the media reports speculated that it might be held on Feb. 15, the date he was captured abroad and brought to Türkiye years ago.
The DEM Party refers to the PKK’s campaign of violence as simply a fight for the rights of the Kurdish people that has been exploited by the PKK. The government, which endorsed the initiative, refuses to term it as such and has repeatedly urged people of Kurdish descent to distance themselves from the propaganda of the terrorist group.
“We support this call and urge the government to cement the ground for this call to accomplish what it sets out to do and to play its role in this historical solution,” Bakırhan said.
Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Pervin Buldan, two DEM Party lawmakers, acted as intermediaries between political parties, the government and Öcalan, conveying the PKK leader’s messages to the public.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, an ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), launched the terror-free initiative last year.
In a shocking move for the hardline politician who has traditionally opposed any concessions to the PKK, Bahçeli said Öcalan should benefit from a conditional, temporary release if he made a speech at the parliamentary group meeting of the DEM Party and openly called for the PKK to lay down arms and cease any terrorist activity.
"Reinforcing Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood is a historic responsibility and is a matter of importance and emergency for all peoples," Öcalan said in his statements quoted by the DEM Party after two meetings.
The PKK terrorist group claims to fight for Kurdish self-rule and brainwashes the Kurdish population concentrated in southeastern Türkiye to draw recruits. Turkish officials are opposed to the conflation of the Kurdish community and the PKK, arguing the definition implies Kurds are a problem for Türkiye and abets the PKK’s terrorist agenda.
The last attempt at peace failed in 2015 when the PKK resumed attacks during negotiations.
Öcalan said it was essential for all political circles in Türkiye to take the initiative without being confined to "narrow calculations," to "act constructively" and "provide a positive contribution" for this new process to succeed.
