Red-listed former PYD co-leader Salih Muslim to hold presser in Brussels
Güven Özalp/ Fevzi Kızılkoyun - BRUSSELS/ ISTANBUL
Former Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) co-chair Salih Muslim, who was added to the “most wanted terrorists” list by the Turkish Interior Ministry on Feb. 12, is expected to hold a press conference in the Belgian capital of Brussels on Feb. 14.
Muslim, who now has a bounty worth four million Turkish Liras placed on his head, is expected to attend an event at the Brussels Kurdish Institute to deliver statements.
The former leader is known to be in contact with the administrative team of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and is being sought with a red warrant. He is now on the list of 137 most sought-after individuals, which includes leaders and senior figures of groups deemed as terrorist organizations by Turkey.
According to Turkish media reports, Muslim was invited by the Turkish government to Ankara and Istanbul in 2013 and 2014 to hold talks on the Syrian crisis and the northern Syrian territories under PYD control.
But following those visits the 2nd High Criminal Court in the southeastern province of Mardin rendered a verdict regarding the PYD and its military wings, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), as “terrorist organizations.”
On a similar note, the brother of jailed Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş, Nurettin Demirtaş, who is part of the PKK’s group in the Qandil Mountains, was also put on the “red list.”
Another name added to the “red list” is Mihraç Ural, the alleged leader of the outlawed People’s Liberation Party-Front (THKP-C) and a staunch supporter of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
Ural’s appearance at a conference in the Russian city of Sochi on the Syrian crisis last month prompted Turkey’s anger. He is one of the main suspects behind bomb attacks in May 2013 in the district of Reyhanlı in the southern province of Hatay that left 52 people dead.
Previously, Ural was on the “green list,” which includes individuals with one million-lira bounties placed on their heads
Anyone who reports on the whereabouts of Oğuzhan Gözlemecioğlu, who lived in Ankara before going to Raqqa to join the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), will be rewarded four million liras.
In total, there are 880 names on the five lists - red, blue, green, orange and black - each based on the hierarchal differences between the wanted individuals.
Of them, 599 are allegedly “separatist terror organization” members, 128 are militants of outlawed left-wing organizations, 73 are members of radical Islamist organizations and 80 are members of the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) led by the U.S.-based Fethullah Gülen, believed to have been behind the deadly July 2016 coup attempt.