Although critical of the “amateur” operation, he praised the attackers for killing a “blood sucker”.
In an interview with PKK-affiliated Sterk TV broadcast on Wednesday night, Erdal said his group’s activities are “very professional” – unlike the “amateur” attack at Erbil’s HuQQabaz restaurant on July 17.
The PKK commander, speaking at an undisclosed location in the mountains of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, also claimed that Osman Kose, the Turkish official who died at the scene, was not a diplomat but the head of a Turkish intelligence unit targeting PKK activity in the Region.
“We did some investigations and concluded that first of all the killed person is not a diplomat but the head of [Turkish intelligence] MIT in charge of activities against us in all southern Kurdistan [Iraqi Kurdistan Region],” he said, noting the presence of top Turkish officials at Kose’s funeral.
On Wednesday, unverified CCTV footage of the incident went viral on social media, purportedly showing three men shooting at Kose and his bodyguard. Kurdish security forces (Asayesh) say they have so far arrested two suspects.
Turkey has not directly blamed the PKK for the attack, nor has the group claimed responsibility. The Turkish state has been at war with the armed group for several decades. The conflict regularly spills over into the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, where the PKK has its headquarters in the Qandil Mountains.
The Erbil attack was condemned by Kurdistan Region officials, foreign diplomatic missions, and by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), which called on the media and political opponents not to defame its MP Dersim Dag – sister of one of the suspects, Mazlum Dag.
“We strongly condemn this attack,” HDP co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Sezai Temelli said in a statement Friday.
“We hope that this unclear, mysterious attack is clarified soon and for no doubt or suspicions over the attack remain.”
‘Well done’
The PKK has not condemned the attack. Erdal even praised the perpetrators for killing “a blood-sucker”.
“Well done to whoever has carried out this activity. They killed a blood-sucker official of the MIT,” he said.
Erdal said Kose was responsible for killing Diyar Ghareeb (Halmat), one of the PKK’s senior officials in the Kurdistan Region. The perpetrators “punished the murderer of comrade Halmat,” he added.
Turkey claimed its forces killed Ghareeb in an airstrike on June 27. The PKK claims he was killed on July 5.
The PKK and the Turkish state have been locked in a decades-long conflict, resulting in the death of more than 40,000 people including Turkish security forces, PKK fighters, and civilians.
Turkey has launched two operations on its border with Kurdistan Region to push PKK fighters out of these mountainous areas.
