Turkey had filed a red notice at Interpol for arrest of Saleeh Muslim, the former co-chair of Democratic Union Party PYD which resulted in the Kurdish leader’s temporary arrest in the capital of Czech, Prague. Muslim has been released after a 2 day custody, reminding the ‘Interpol Crisis’ when Turkey had filed a similar arrest warrant on German-Turkish author Doğan Akhanlı.
[mks_dropcap style="letter" size="52" bg_color="#ffffff" txt_color="#000000"]O[/mks_dropcap]n Saturday evening, PYD’s former co-chair Saleeh Muslim had been arrested upon Turkey’s red notice being issued to Czech authorities on Saturday night. Muslim had been brought to Prague City Court today and released. Turkey’s filing an arrest warrant at the International Police Organisation (Interpol) reminded of the earlier requests which had been internationally criticised. MERKEL: “TURKEY SHOULD NOT ABUSE INTERPOL NOTICES” Doğan Akhanlı, a German national of Turkish descent had been detained in the Spanish city of Granada where he had been having his vacation on August 19, 2017 upon Turkey’s filing of red notice. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had criticised the detention saying “institutions such as Interpol should not be abused for such purposes.” Parliamentary group speaker of the German Greens Party, Volker Beck had stated “Turkey’s President Erdoğan is trying to surpass his powers beyond the borders of his country, and intimidate opposition groups.” INTERPOL HAD DELETED THE WARRANT Interpol had deleted the red notice that had led to arrest and release of author Doğan Akhanlı, which had led to escalation of tension between Germany and Turkey upon President Erdoğan calling for a “no-vote to parties that are hostile towards Turkey” prior to German Federal Elections on September 24, 2017. German Minister of Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel had defined this call as a direct intervention into German national sovereignty while Erdoğan had responded that Gabriel “does not know his place”. NO GUARANTEES FOR MUSLIM’S TRANSFER TO TURKEY Main opposition Republican People’s Party CHP’s vice-chairperson and deputy for Ardahan, Öztürk Yılmaz had announced at the Parliament that Saleeh Muslim’s detention does not necessarily lead to his transfer to Turkey. Yılmaz had stated “Czechia does not recognize PYD as a terror organisation; Muslim is not a Turkish citizen; and there is no agreement between Czechia and Turkey for return of criminals, which can perhaps only happen as part of the European Convention which is an international agreement. Czechia can still not proceed, as PYD is not considered a terror organisation.” INTERPOL DISREGARDS SOME TURKISH DECISIONS Turkish Minister of Justice Abdülhamit Gül has also commented on the release decision for Saleeh Muslim saying “wherever he might be, we will be following. Interpol is disregarding Turkey’s requests based upon some political excuses.”