ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed on Wednesday that it has the dead body of a Turkish soldier who has recently gone missing in the Kurdistan Region. The group added that it is ready to hand over the body to his family, if requested. Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said in a tweet on November 20 that the uncle of a Turkish soldier, Mustafa Bazna, had asked him to help the family find out about the fate of the soldier “who we have not heard from for 15 days.” The lawmaker also cited the family as saying that they had been told by Turkish authorities that Bazna could have been lost, killed or taken as a hostage by the PKK while on duty in the Kurdistan Region’s mountainous areas. However, one of the soldier’s brothers told the Turkish pro-government media that they had not asked for help from the HDP lawmaker and would never do that. But the brother confirmed that Bazna had been missing, adding that they were informed by the Turkish authorities on November 15 that they had lost contact with the soldier and “the rescue efforts were underway.” The PKK claimed on Wednesday that Bazna was killed by them near the Amedi district of Duhok province on November 3, adding that they also confiscated his military equipment and mobile phone. “Even though there is such an inhuman enemy… we state hereby that we can deliver the body of the soldier named Mustafa Bazna to his family through civilians or non-governmental organizations, if they demand, in accordance with the moral values of humanity, common values of the peoples and the laws of war,” said the PKK in a statement published by its media outlets. PKK is an armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization and often carries out military operations against it at home and in the Kurdistan Region. Bazna went missing in the framework of the code-named Operation Claw-Lock which was launched by Ankara in April, according to Turkish media. The Turkish government has not commented on Bazna’s case.
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