PKK members identified with facial recognition

ISTANBUL

Two outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members who were brought to Turkey for hospital treatment were identified through the facial recognition system set up at the Turkey-Syria border.

The facial recognition system was swiftly set up on the border as a precaution against PKK militants attempting to enter Turkey during the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) advance on the city of Kobane, daily Vatan reported.

Photographs and fingerprints of all people who wanted to cross into Turkey, or who were brought across the border wounded, were taken in order to be checked.

Members of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), affiliated with the PKK, are fighting against ISIL’s attacks in Kobane, while the U.S.-led coalition targets ISIL positions.

Selahattin Dilek, a member of the PKK, was identified during the facial recognition check in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa. Dilek was detained by the Şanlıurfa Police at the Suruç State Hospital where he is being treated, and will be transferred to Diyarbakır after his recovery.

The PKK’s regional commander for Hakkari, Selman Ateş, was also identified with the facial recognition system after he asked to be transferred to a hospital in Diyarbakır. Ateş had used a fake ID to register at another hospital.