Turkish Intelligence “Neutralized” PKK-Affiliated Communist Leader In Syria’s Al-Hasakah

Zeki Gurbuz, aka Ahmet Sores. Source: the Anadolu Agency.

The Turkish intelligence has “neutralized” a senior leader of the Marxist–Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) in Syria’s northern region, the Anadolu Agency reported on January 6.

Security sources told the state-run news agency that the communist leader, Zeki Gurbuz, was targeted in an operation by the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in the countryside of al-Hasakah.

The term “neutralized” is usually used by official Turkish sources to imply that the person in question was killed, wounded or captured.

Late on June 5, two unidentified men were reportedly shot and killed by assailants near the village of Anbara, which is held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in the northern countryside of al-Hasakah. The attack may be the special operation reported by the Anadolu Agency.

Gurbuz, also known as Ahmet Sores, was allegedly behind an attack that targeted a vehicle carrying the prison guards in the northwestern Turkish province of Bursa and a rocket attack that targeted Turkish security forces on the border with Syria last year.

The MLKP, which was established in 1994, is known to be very close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In 2007, Turkey designated the party as a “terrorist group”.

Gurbuz held a senior position in the armed wing of the MLKP, the so-called Armed Forces of the Poor and the Oppressed (FESK).

In February of 2013 he was arrested in Greece. Nevertheless, Greek authorities rejected an extradition request from Turkey and released him in April of the same year. Later, Gurbuz moved from Greece to Iraq and then to Syria.

According to the Anadolu Agency, Gurbuz became the leader of the MLKP in Syria after Baran Serhat, codenamed Bayram Namaz, was “neutralized” in March of 2019.

The MİT stepped up its operations against Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq in the last few months. Early on in November, the agency targeted a senior military commander of the People’s Protection Units, the core faction of the SDF and the alleged Syrian wing of the PKK, in northern Syria.

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