Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu Agency reported that Hatip Guney, code-named “Sahan/Cihan” and Aya Ahmed Suleyman, code-named “Tekosin Kamisli/Civan” were arrested in PKK-controlled Makhmour camp and brought to Turkey, attributing their arrest to a National Intelligence Agency (MIT) operation in the camp.
The PKK denied the reports and labeled them as “completely unfounded,” instead saying the two members betrayed the group in July and “were handed over to the Turkish state in some form,” according to PKK-affiliated Firat News Agency (ANF).
Turkish forces frequently bombard Makhmour camp in Erbil province on the grounds of targeting PKK fighters. Three people were killed in a suspected Turkish airstrike near the camp in June 2021 and another civilian was killed in a Turkish drone strike late August in the camp.
The PKK is an armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization and frequently targets it at home as well as southward in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq and has launched successive cross-border operations against the group.
Hakan Fidan, the head of the MIT, told Iraqi officials during an early September visit to Baghdad that Turkey’s war against the PKK in Iraq will continue as long as the group maintains control of Iraqi soil.
Turkey launched its latest operation, dubbed Claw-Lock, on April 18 targeting PKK positions in the mountainous areas of Metina, Zap, Avashin, and Basyan in Duhok province. The operation is the fourth stage of Ankara’s Claw operations against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region, with the first stage starting in 2019.
Makhmour camp hosts more than 12,000 Kurdish refugees who fled persecution by the Turkish state, mostly in the 1990s. It is located in the disputed territories between Erbil and Baghdad, and the Iraqi government lost control of the camp when the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked the country and seized vast swathes of territory.
Assaults against PKK members southward across the border have previously led to civilian casualties, despite Ankara’s denial.
