Security sources said on Wednesday a wanted terrorist was captured by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in an unspecified Middle Eastern country. The terrorist was identified as Kadir Çelik, a member of the Maoist Communist Party (MKP) who was linked to the terrorist group PKK.
Çelik, who was in the “gray category” of the most wanted list of the Interior Ministry, was planning an attack that would target Türkiye, sources said. He was handed over to law enforcement after his capture. Sources said Çelik was active in MKP’s illegal wing in Istanbul between 2011 and 2016, where he was involved in firebomb attacks targeting security forces. In 2016, he left for northern Iraq, where PKK has strongholds. There, he undertook “training for assassinations,” sources said. In 2018, he relocated to Syria to join PKK’s Syrian wing YPG and was involved in armed activities, sources added.
MIT stepped up its operations against terrorist groups abroad in recent years. Counterterrorism operations largely target PKK and its affiliates. They concentrate on northern parts of Türkiye’s neighbors Syria and Iraq, where the terrorist group exploits a security vacuum to operate freely. Turkish intelligence generally carries out precision airstrikes, employing drones, but occasionally, they bring terrorism suspects alive.