PKK militant pleads guilty to killing Kurdish politicians

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

An outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant, who was one of assailants carrying out a rocket launcher attack on a police station in Turkey’s eastern province of Erzurum in August 2015, has pleaded guilty to killing two local members of the Free Cause Party (HÜDA PAR) in 2014. 

Kadir Gümüş, who was captured after being wounded in the attack on the police station in the Pasinler district of Erzurum, told prosecutors that he killed HÜDA PAR members Fethi Yalçın and Cengiz Tiryaki and also committed a number of other violent acts on behalf of the PKK such as setting vehicles on fire, abducting people, and carrying out armed attacks on security forces.

Gümüş reportedly said he was originally from the southeastern province of Diyarbakır and joined the PKK’s mountain group at its headquarters in the Kandil area of northern Iraq in 2008.    

After being sent to other camps of the militant group, he said he arrived in Turkey in April 2014 and was responsible for PKK activities in the Tekman district of Erzurum. 

Gümüş said he killed Yalçın in October 2014 after the latter fought with Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) supporters in the aftermath of a demonstration. He said he committed the killing after following Yalçın in a car from the Varto district of Muş province to the Karlıova district of Bingöl province.

“After a while he noticed that we were following him. He stopped his car and entered a house. We approached to within 200 to 300 meters of the house. Fethi left the house and came by the side of the road. Because the side where Fethi was standing was opposite me, I gave the weapon to Şerzan, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat. He directly targeted Fethi and fired five or six times. Fethi fell down,” Gümüş told prosecutors.  

He also pleaded guilty to killing another HÜDA PAR member, Cengiz Tiryaki, after raiding his home in the Alpiran village of Karlıova district, also in October 2014. 

The suspect said he killed Tiryaki for “not giving up his allegiance to HÜDA PAR despite warnings.” 

“His brother was an executive at the HDP’s Karlıova branch office. Our friends warned him to give up on HÜDA PAR but he did not do so. On the day of the incident we went [to his home] to talk,” said Gümüş, adding that Tiryaki refused to talk and only said he would not abandon his party.  

“After waiting for two hours,” Gümüş said, he fired at Tiryaki “with the intention of killing him.”  
 
Gümüş said he did not regret any of the killings and stressed that he had also played a role in various other violent acts for the PKK. 

Meanwhile, the Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Nov. 21 that 41 PKK militants had been “neutralized” in Turkey over the last week, including 15 who were killed in ground operations, three who were injured, four who were captured unharmed, and three who surrendered.