ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Monday confirmed the death of one of its top commanders in a Turkish airstrike in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq some eight months ago.
Muslih Ike - alias Tekoser Gever - was killed by the strike in the Qandil mountains of the Kurdistan Region on August 20, according to a PKK statement published by the pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency (ANF) on Monday.
“He fell martyr following a Turkish air attack on Medya Defense Areas [PKK headquarters] on 20 August 2019," read the statement.
The statement paid tribute to 47-year-old Gever as an architect of the PKK's "historical resistance” against increasing Turkish "occupation" in the Kurdish areas of Turkey and in the Kurdistan Region.
Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency (AA) reported Gever’s death on November 4, but did not specify when he was killed. On the same day, AA and other Turkish media outlets published footage purportedly showing the moment Gever was targeted by the Turkish strike.
PKK'nın sözde "Metina alan sorumlusu" Müsluh İke'nin öldürülme anı https://t.co/kjgKXqEjrf pic.twitter.com/rBnLHfuaXH
— CNN TÜRK #EvdeKal (@cnnturk) November 4, 2019
Gever, a fixture on the Turkish interior ministry's most wanted list, rose through the ranks of the PKK after joining the group as a 20-year-old in 1993.
He previously led the group's forces in Makhmour, a town in territory disputed by the governments of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, when Islamic State (ISIS) controlled swaths of Iraqi and Syrian land. He then returned to the Qandil mountain range along the Turkey-Iraq-Iran border that has served as the PKK's headquarters for around three decades.
It is unclear why the group chose to announce Gever's death so long after the lethal strike.
The PKK's war with the Turkish state for greater political and cultural rights for Kurds has resulted in more than 40,000 deaths of militants and civilians. The group is regarded as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies.
Turkey routinely launches land and air operations against the group within its borders, in the Kurdistan Region, and in Iraq’s disputed territories of Shingal and Makhmour. It also attacks Kurdish forces in northern Syria, accusing them of ties with the PKK.
In late March, PKK fighter Sema Kocer allegedly blew herself up on the Iran-Turkey border, killing 30 Turkish soldiers and injuring “dozens.”
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