‘This is an embarrassment for Armenia’: The Kurdistan Workers' Party on extraditing its members to Turkey

Armenia has violated its own and international laws by extraditing two members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to Turkey. This was stated in a press release by the Kurdish People's Defense Forces (HPG).

According to the Kurdish ANF agency, the statement mentions that Atilla Cicek and Hussein Yildirim have been extradited from Armenia to Turkey. HPG does not disclose their surnames, opting instead to use their pseudonyms ‘Leheng’ and ‘Alisher’. It was noted that they 'clashed with the forces of the Armenian state in the border area with Armenia in August 2021 and acted with restraint to prevent a negative situation, but were arrested, detained, and charged.'

“Our friends stood before the Armenian Court of Appeals on February 23, 2022, which decided to release them. According to international and Armenian legislation, they should have been released. Instead, they were abducted and detained by Armenia's secret service. Despite promises to release them after the specified measures were undertaken, they were extradited from Armenia to Turkey about a month ago,” the statement said.

HPG has issued a harsh condemnation of Armenia's decision. “The transfer of Kurdish revolutionaries to genocide-focused Turkey is an embarrassment for Armenia. These Kurdish revolutionaries fight for the existence and freedom of their people and mourn for all oppressed peoples,” declared HPG.

According to the information published in Armenia's judicial information system, datalex.am, they were charged on August 16, 2021, with illegally crossing the border of Armenia across the Araks River and smuggling weapons and ammunition. The first-instance court in the Syunik region sentenced Hussein Yildirim and Atilla Cicek to 7 years of imprisonment in January 2022, along with a decision to confiscate their financial assets. Later, the Court of Appeals reduced the sentence for the two PKK members to a conditional sentence with a 3-year probation period.

Auroranews.am is seeking comments from Armenian authorities. Opposition “Armenia” faction deputies Arthur Khachatryan and Gegham Manukyan have also addressed the issue. Khachatryan specifically wrote: “Kurdish sources report that Armenia has handed over two Kurdish revolutionaries fighting against Turkey's fascist regime to Turkey. This is the same Turkey that has committed genocide against Armenians, has blockaded Armenia from the West since 1993, consistently pursued an anti-Armenian policy in international forums, provided drones, military consultants, mercenaries, and intelligence data to Azerbaijan during the 44-day war in 2020, and whose main staff has effectively directed the war against Armenia. And today, the Armenian authorities are handing over Kurdish fighters to this same enemy, Turkey. I cannot say much publicly, but over the past 30 years, the Turks have repeatedly demanded the extradition of Kurdish fighters found in Armenia for various reasons and have always been denied. Today, in the era of Armenian-Turkish romance, the situation has changed. In 1999, during the Greek-Turkish rapprochement, the Greeks handed over Ocalan to the Turks. They later realized the mistake they made and how the Turks deceived them. The velvet authorities are learning nothing from their own or anyone else's mistakes. They are doing whatever they want over our heads…”

Gegham Manukyan also wrote: “Two Kurdish freedom fighters, revolutionaries who fought for the liberation of their own people and against Turkish tyranny. They actively operated in Dersim, a region where many of our compatriots were saved during the Armenian Genocide due to the Kurds' help and later participated in the Dersim rebellion. Now they have been abducted and handed over to the authorities of genocide-focused Turkey, which was actively involved in the 44-day war against our country, after a legally binding court decision in Armenia. Kurdish sources report that the two fighters with the pseudonyms Leheng and Alisher have been handed over to the Turkish secret service (MIT). The Turks, in turn, proudly state that the two Kurds, wanted for years, have found themselves in their hands due to a secret intelligence operation,” Manukyan wrote.