ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish intelligence on Wednesday claimed to have “neutralized” a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) near Sulaimani, after being accused of plotting the assassination of a Turkish diplomat in 2019.
Turkish state media reported that Celal Kaya was “neutralized” in the countryside of Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province. It added that Kaya was the PKK’s “Iraq intelligence officer.” Turkey uses the term neutralized to denote adversaries captured, wounded, or killed.
The PKK has not yet commented on the incident.
Kaya is accused by Turkey of being the mastermind behind the murder of Osman Kose, a Turkish diplomat, who was killed in a restaurant in Erbil when three gunmen opened fire with pistols fitted with suppressors.
At the time, Turkey blamed the attack on the PKK.
The reports come two days after Turkey announced it was extending the suspension of flights with Sulaimani International Airport until January 2024. Flights were initially suspended on April 3 for three months, with Ankara saying it was in response to the alleged “intensification” of PKK activity in the city, referring to the crash of two helicopters carrying Syria-based Kurdish fighters a month prior.
Turkish officials have repeatedly accused Sulaimani authorities of supporting the PKK. Turkish forces often carry out aerial attacks in the province on the grounds of targeting the PKK.
The PKK never claimed responsibility for Kose's assassination and denied carrying it out, but praised the perpetrators for killing a “blood sucker”.
Days after the incident, the Kurdistan Region Security Council (IKSC) released CCTV footage showing the moment of the assassination and the confession of the primary suspect, Mazlum Mohammed Zaki, who goes by the name Mazlum Dag.
Zaki is the brother of Dersim Dag, a former MP of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the Turkish parliament.
IKSC arrested seven people involved in the assassinations. In 2020, an Erbil court released two of the detainees, while sentencing Zaki and Abdulrahman Shahin, who were the main culprits of the incident, to be executed.
The attack has been condemned by Kurdistan Region officials, foreign diplomatic missions, and HDP, which called on the media and political opponents not to defame its MP Dag.
The Turkish state has been at war with the armed group for several decades. The conflict regularly spills over into the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, where the PKK has its headquarters in the Qandil Mountains.
The Turkish army often targets them at home and in the Kurdistan Region. Turkish intelligence is accused of carrying out assassinations of the group’s members in the Region.
