Turkey seeks arrest of Syrian Kurdish leader

Turkey on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for the leader of the main Syrian Kurdish political party over a deadly bombing in Ankara in February blamed on Kurdish militants.
Arrest warrants were issued for the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) leader Salih Muslim as well as several fugitive leaders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) over the February 17 bombing against military vehicles, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Turkey had blamed the PYD and its military wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), for the attack which left at least 28 people dead and was followed by another devastating bombing in the capital in March.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) — a radical splinter group of the better-known PKK — claimed the suicide bombing, saying that it was in response to security operations in the southeast.
But Anadolu said that Ankara prosecutors believe that the order for the attack came from the PKK’s “highest leadership” and the TAK was merely a “front group” for the organisation.
In his first reaction to the warrant, Muslim wrote on his official Twitter account that he did not take the order seriously.
“It’s known that Turkey is being ruled by decrees and a fabricated decree has been issued concerning me. I don’t think anyone will take it seriously,” he wrote in Turkish.
He later told AFP in Beirut: “I am not a Turkish citizen to be targeted by an arrest warrant.”
The warrant for Muslim came after Turkey earlier this month arrested 10 MPs from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party on charges of links to the PKK, sparking international condemnation.
“The courts in Turkey take their orders from the authorities. Even members of parliament are being held,” Muslim said, referring to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers.
Reacting to the Turkish accusations, he said: “We condemned that attack when it took place and I consider this attempt to involve me in it as completely unacceptable.”
Turkey considers the YPG and the PYD to be terror groups, accusing them of seeking to carve out an autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria and working with President Bashar al-Assad.
But while the United States sees the PKK as a terror group, it works closely with the YPG as its main ally on the ground in the fight against jihadists in northern Syria.
The dispute over the YPG and PYD has raised tensions between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Washington, with Turkey also firing on YPG positions in northern Syria.
Erdogan reaffirmed in a speech Tuesday that Ankara-backed Syrian rebels planned to advance towards the key town of Manbij to expel remaining YPG and PYD elements.
“We want to see that area fully emptied of YPG and PYD.”
Arrest warrants were also issued for fugitive PKK leaders Cemil Bayik, Murat Karayilan and Fehman Huseyin over the bombing, Anadolu said.
All three are believed to be at the group’s paramilitary rear bases in mountainous northern Iraq.
Muslim is believed to travel frequently including numerous trips to Brussels. His last visit to Turkey according to Turkish media reports dates back to 2015.
In the early days of Syria’s civil war, Muslim was a relatively regular visitor to Ankara which saw him as a possible ally. Turkey now accuses him of backing its enemy Assad, accusations the PYD denies.
In comments to AFP in Stockholm earlier this month, Muslim said that reconciliation with Turkey was “impossible” so long as Erdogan was in power.
He said his aim was to build a “democratic Syria… No other way. A democratic federal Syria.”
While the Turkish authorities have for some time made no secret of their enmity for Muslim, this is the first time Ankara has issued an arrest warrant for him.
The arrest warrants also target two Kurdish figures residing in Brussels, Zubeyir Aydar and Remzi Kartal, who are both prominent in the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) which Ankara sees as a branch of the PKK.
Both were arrested by Belgian authorities in March 2010, in a move that pleased Turkey, but were later released.
Erdogan has lashed out in recent weeks against EU states — especially Belgium and Germany — who he has accused of failing to hand over hundreds of wanted militants.