ANKARA
For over four years, key positions in the PYD, the terrorist organization PKK’s Syrian affiliate, have been held by PKK militants from its headquarters in Mt. Qandil, Iraq. In that same period, since November 2011, many top-level PKK figures have been carrying out PYD activities in northern Syria.
The KCK is the name of the umbrella entity of so-called “Kurdistan” organizations. Accordingly, the PKK is the Turkish branch of the structure, while the PYD is the Syrian branch, the PCDK the Iraqi branch, and the PJAK the Iranian branch.
The PYD, formed on the order of imprisoned PKK head terrorist Abdullah Ocalan in 2002, has been structured as an organization dependent on the PKK while simultaneously trying to hide this affiliation.
The PYD structure was determined in congresses held in 2003-2015 carried out under the direction of the PKK in camps belonging to the separatist organization. As of November 2011, the armed service of the PYD was formed by terrorists sent from PKK camps in Iraq to Syria under the name YPG.
The PYD feeds terrorism in Turkey
Security sources found that the PYD has been helping its Turkish affiliate the PKK with arms and ammunition along with increased foreign support. The arms include anti-tanks weapon, missiles, and heavy machine guns and various bullets.
The PYD name was mentioned in two recent terror attacks in Turkey’s capital Ankara on February 17 and March 13 that claimed scores of civilian lives. The Interior Ministry announced Tuesday that the perpetrator of the March attack joined the PKK in 2013 and then trained at YPG camps in Syria.
Security sources also say the real leader of the PYD is Fehman Huseyin -- code-named “Bahoz Erdal” -- not Salih Muslim. Huseyin, who is also a top PKK operative, runs the PYD.
Huseyin dictates PKK strategy and policies formed at Mt. Qandil to PYD members. Huseyin was a general director at the HPG, the armed service of the PKK, in 2003-2009. He was also in charge of PKK terrorist activities in Turkey.
PKK/KCK executive committee member Ferhat Abdi Sahin -- code-named “Sahin Cilo Kobani-Mazlum” -- became the head of the YPG. Sahin was present during the visit this January to Ayn Al Arab (Kobani), Syria by Brett McGurk, U.S. President Barack Obama’s special envoy for the global coalition to counter Daesh.
Nureddin Muhammed, another executive member of the PKK/KCK in Syria, has been in charge of the HPG’s political affairs.
Asya Abdullah, a permanent member of the PKK/KCK’s decision-making body in Syria, has been a co-leader of the PYD along with Salih Muslim. Abdullah was invited to France’s Élysée Palace along with YPJ (female armed brigade of the PYD) operative Nesrin Abdullah by French President François Hollande.
Other PKK/KCK members include Aldar Halil (Velid Halil), the vice president of the PYD, as well as Hamza Botan (Abdullah Sen), who has been running the organization’s financial affairs. Sen was sentenced to 6 years in prison for “being a member of a foreign terrorist organization” by a high court in Dusseldorf, Germany. Sen is currently in northern Iraq.
Another permanent decision-making body member of the PKK/KCK Syria Hanife Huseyin -- code-named “Halide” -- was appointed head of the YPG’s female divisions in May 2015.
The PYD uses the presence of female terrorists to create an illusion of “modernity, secularism, and anti-radicalism” in the eyes of the Western public and media.
PKK/KCK Syria executive Ahmet Seker -- code-named “Fazıl Gite Şınaki Botan Kerim” -- became an HPG member in October 2013.
The PYD, the terrorist PKK’s Syrian affiliate, which is known for working alongside the Assad regime, is trying to oppress other Kurdish opposition groups in the region.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said earlier this year that the PYD terror group has been involved in ethnic cleansing, arbitrary arrests, and forced conscription in Syria.
Amnesty International said in a 2015 report that the PYD had wrecked the northern region where Arabs and Turkmen civilians live and caused the forceful displacement of residents.
The power vacuum in Syria paved the way for terrorist structures like the PYD.
