MESOP WATCH: Turkey Claims Killing of PKK’s Central Committee Member in Rojava

ERBIL 28.9.2021 -Turkey on Tuesday claimed it had killed a member of the Central Committee of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Syrian Kurdistan, commonly known as Rojava.An unnamed security source, cited by the state-run Anadolu Agency, identified the PKK commander as Engin Karaaslan, codenamed Haydar Varto.

He revealed that Varto was targeted in his vehicle while traveling on the main road between Qamishli and Hasakah, noting that he has become the “most senior” member of the PKK so far killed in the Syrian Kurdistan.

Varto joined the PKK in 1980s. He later served in the ranks of the armed group in Damascus and other areas of the Syrian Kurdistan.

He was placed on a red notice of the Interpol by the Turkish government which sees the PKK as a “terrorist organization”.

Turkey and the PKK are locked in a deadly armed conflict for more than three decades. They have lost thousands of fighters and caused the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in vast areas along the borders between Syria, Turkey, and the Kurdistan Region.

Since January this year, the Turkish army has stepped up its cross-border operations against the PKK inside the territories of the Kurdistan Region and the Syrian Kurdistan.

On August 16, a Turkish airstrike hit a vehicle in the predominantly Yezidi town of Sinjar, killing Saeed Hassan, the commander of one of the armed groups affiliated with the PKK, and injuring several others.