News / Turkey

Senior PKK militant captured in anti-terror operation in Turkey's Adana

Sunday, 03 February 2019 1:48 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 03 February 2019 1:53 PM ]

Davut Baghestani, a high-ranking member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) (photo by Radio Nawa)

Turkish security forces have arrested a high-ranking member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) during a counterterrorism operation in the country’s southern province of Adana.

Turkish judicial sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Davut Baghestani was captured along with three other people. The sources added that police seized six mobile phones, including three belonging to the senior PKK member and other digital documents from their hideout.

Baghestani is suspected of spreading propaganda for the Kurdish militant group on various social media accounts.

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He was apparently conducting activities on behalf of the PKK in the southern Turkish provinces of Adana and Mersin using a fake identity.

Baghestani was a member of the so-called executive council of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an alliance of pro-Kurdish groups, in addition to various organizations that were either armed or led by youth and women.

He also served as the chairman of a Kurdish institute in Israel, where he spread PKK propaganda. He purportedly served as an intermediary between the militant group, the Tel Aviv regime and Washington.

PKK militants regularly clash with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey attached to northern Iraq.

Turkey, along with the European Union and the United States, has declared the PKK a terrorist group and blacklisted it. The group has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984.

A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.

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Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.

More than 40,000 people have been killed during the three-decade conflict between Turkey and the autonomy-seeking militant group.

Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front member nabbed in Istanbul

Separately, a senior member of the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) was captured following an operation in Istanbul.

Hatice Ruken Kilic, a senior member of the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) (Photo by Turkish-language Ulusal Kanal television network)

Counterterrorism units in Istanbul and members of the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MIT) held a joint operation on Saturday, and managed to arrest Hatice Ruken Kilic.

The DHKP/C is an outlawed militant group blamed for a wave of terror attacks and bombings across Turkey since 1990.

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