Belgian police arrest 8 PKK suspects, including leaders Aydar and Kartal

Twenty people were initially detained on Thursday after about 300 police officers raided 28 addresses throughout the country, including the offices of pro-PKK television broadcaster Roj TV, as part of a three-year investigation into PKK activities. Later on Thursday, Belgian security forces announced

they had detained 18 people, but some media outlets reported the number as 22.

Judges approved the arrest of eight of those taken in. They are due to appear in court on Tuesday, a federal prosecutor said, declining to give further details. Two of the PKK’s leading figures, Zübeyir Aydar and Remzi Kartal, were among those arrested.

“We believe there are serious indications that young people, especially of Kurdish origin, were being recruited in Western countries, including Belgium, for military camps in north and eastern Iraq and Greece,” federal prosecutors’ spokeswoman Lieve Pellens said during a press conference. She noted that investigations had produced evidence that a large group of people in Belgium were involved in falsifying passports and providing financing to help recruit people for the PKK’s military activities. “We saw that it was more than just isolated activities,” Pellens said.

Pro-PKK groups comprising close to 200 people clashed with Belgian police forces that surrounded the Roj TV headquarters late on Thursday. Similar protests also took place in İstanbul’s Taksim Square on Friday.

Glenn Audenaert, director of the Federal Judiciary Police Brussels, said 100,000 euros had been seized at the television station and its radio outlet Radio Mezopotamya and that a further 100,000 euros were found elsewhere. Positively assessing the operations during a press conference on Thursday, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said it is good to see Belgium acting in line with its obligations in the fight against international terrorism. Several days ago, 11 PKK members were detained in operations carried out in Italy and nine more in France.

Twenty people were initially detained on Thursday after police raided 28 addresses throughout Belgium, including the offices of Roj TV.

Pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputy Emine Ayna reacted strongly to the Belgian police raids on the BDP’s Brussels office during a news conference in Brussels. She said even Turkey’s Constitution accepts the legality of the party and that the Belgian police’s raid of the BDP’s office as if it were a terrorist organization is unacceptable.

Meanwhile, BDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş reportedly went to the Belgian Embassy in Ankara to learn about the latest developments of Thursday’s operations against PKK members and Roj TV’s Brussels office.

Turkey will demand the extradition of Aydar, the leader of the outlawed Kurdish National Congress (Kongra-Gel), who is living in Sweden on a refugee visa, diplomatic sources at the Foreign Ministry told Today’s Zaman. Analysts say there might be a crisis between Turkey and Belgium if Belgium refuses to hand Aydar over to Turkey.

Turkey and Belgium went through a similar crisis before when Belgian authorities were reluctant to act against PKK activities in their country. Diplomatic sources said intelligence sharing with Europe was not very strong and that there were many technical problems. In addition, Turkey’s democratic initiative, which aims to solve the country’s decades-long Kurdish problem, has improved the country’s credibility.

Sources refuted speculation that Turkish police participated in the raids. Another source said the US having a role in the operations should not be ruled out. The same source also said European governments had previously neglected to take measures against PKK members in European countries but because of increased intelligence sharing, Europe no longer supports pro-PKK groups. The source said Belgium used to not even cooperate with Turkey. “Recent operations show the change in Belgium’s attitude,” the diplomatic source noted. Stating that Turkey and the US already share intelligence with respect to PKK activities in northern Iraq, the diplomat said similar operations are not expected in northern Iraq.