Turkey submits extradition request for former Kurdish leader Salih Muslim
Turkey has filed an official extradition request for a leading Syrian Kurd only days after he was arrested by police in the Czech Republic.
The two countries are negotiating over the extradition of Salih Muslim, a former head of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, Turkish state media reported.
Mr Muslim was replaced as PYD leader last year, but Ankara considers the group to be linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a banned organisation that has run a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
He was arrested in a Prague hotel on Saturday by police, and Turkey submitted a formal extradition request yesterday. Turkish officials say he is due to appear in court today.
Mr Muslim was in Prague at the invitation of the Czech government for a closed-door conference on building peace in the Middle East.
“Turkey’s case is unlawful,” Ahmed Muslim, a PYD representative in the United Kingdom, told The National. “They are claiming he was part of an attack in Ankara. In fact they are trying to demonise the PYD.
“They are trying everything to penalise the PYD, who want a democratic solution to the war in Syria. This is a nightmare for Turkey. They want the war to keep going.”
He also hit out at the Czech authorities. “They invited him, he was their guest. They were supposed to be taking responsibility for his security. We wonder if they were acting as Turkish police or Czech police.”
Two days before his arrest, Mr Muslim was added to Turkey’s list of “most wanted terrorists” with a bounty of almost US$1 million (Dh3.7m) on his head.
“Turkey expects Salih Muslim, who is a leader of a terrorist group and is still actively plotting terrorist attacks against Turkey, to be extradited to our country,” said Bekir Bozdag, Turkey’s deputy prime minister.
“Our hope is that the Czech Republic will extradite him to Turkey and justice will be served,” said the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The PYD and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units, have received western backing throughout the fight against ISIL, but the PKK are designated a terrorist organisation by many western states, including the UK and the United States.
The PYD officials insist the organisations are separate, but analysts say they are “virtually indistinguishable”.