Turkish Foreign Ministry summons German envoy over ex-PYD chair Muslim

Sevil Erkuş - ANKARA

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry summoned a German diplomat in Ankara on April 27 and asked German authorities to intervene in a meeting in Germany where former Democratic Union Party (PYD) co-chair Salih Muslim plans to deliver a speech.

The charge d’affairs of the embassy was summoned, as the German ambassador to Ankara was absent, and was asked to convey to Berlin Turkey’s demand to have Muslim excluded from the event on May 19 in Ludwigshafen where he will deliver a speech, a Foreign Ministry official has told the Hürriyet Daily News.

The ministry reiterated they wanted German authorities to extradite Muslim.

Muslim was arrested on Feb. 25 in Prague following Turkey’s request to the Czech Republic.

Two days later, he was released by a Czech court on the condition that he would not leave the European Union and appear in future hearings in the extradition case, an event that caused a diplomatic row with Ankara, which has accused Muslim of aggravated murder and disrupting the Turkish state.

Ankara, describing his release as a political decision against international law, swore to follow Muslim “wherever he goes.”

On March 3, Turkish authorities said Muslim was spotted in Berlin, where he also participated in a demonstration organized by outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) supporters. Ankara had asked German authorities to extradite him.

Muslim, an influential figure of the PYD — a group Turkey considers as a terror network due to its links to the PKK — is being sought with a red notice by Turkey on suspicion of his involvement in the planning of a terrorist attack carried out in Ankara in 2016.

The March 13, 2016 attack at Güvenpark in Ankara’s Kızılay — a popular shopping area — had been carried out using an explosives-laden vehicle, which left 37 people dead and dozens others injured.