Vying for Power in the PKK: A Profile of Senior Commander Dr. Bahoz Erdal

Vying for Power in the PKK: A Profile of Senior Commander Dr. Bahoz Erdal

Fahman Hussein— a Kurdish militant more widely known by his nom de guerre, Dr. Bahoz Erdal — was born in Syria in 1969. He studied to be a veterinarian at the School of Medicine of the University of Damascus, to which the title ”Dr.” in his nom de guerre refers (Hürriyet, July 10, 2016). Known variously as the “butcher,” the “hangman” and the “doctor,” he is fluent in Kurdish, Turkish and Arabic (Sabah, July 12, 2016). Erdal became active in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK), an ethnic separatist terrorist organization operating in Turkey, early on in life. In the 1990s, when the Syrian regime’s political line was quite supportive of PKK actions, Erdal made numerous visits to Damascus on behalf of the group. After the capture of PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan in 1999, Erdal became one of the leading figures in the group and more active in PKK operations in Turkey, eventually becoming a key figure PKK activity throughout Turkey, Syria and Iraq.

Erdal — along with Murat Karayılan and Cemil Bayık — was part of the triumvirate established to lead the PKK after Öcalan’s capture (Sabah, July 10, 2016). Fierce competition developed between the three men for the position of top leader in the group. In 2004, the triumvirate took a new form as the PKK’s Executive Committee. This formalized the positions of the triumvirate, which made up the new Executive Committee (LiveLeak, July 9, 2016). Despite this, competition between Erdal and others on the Executive Committee persisted.

The People’s Defense Force

In 2004, the year of the Executive Committee’s formation, Erdal was appointed as the head of the PKK’s military wing, the People’s Defense Force (HPG, Hêzên Parastina Gel). Erdal became widely known while leading the military wing the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States, European Union and Turkey. Among other terrorist attacks, Erdal best is known for ordering several attacks on Turkish military outposts: Yüksekova (2007), Aktütün (2007), Dağlıca (2008), Çukurca-Kekliktepe (2011) and Yeşiltaş (2012) (Milliyet, July 10, 2016). Erdal’s leadership of the HPG ended in 2009, when he was succeeded by Nureddin Halef al-Muhammad (a.k.a. Nureddin Sofi) (The Turkey Analyst, April 19, 2016).

The HPG saw a period of change under Erdal’s leadership. Between 2004 and 2009, it adopted urban warfare tactics, formed special forces troops and decentralized its command structure in order to allow each commander to conduct terrorist attacks in the area under his responsibility (Rastî, April 19, 2009). During the same period, Erdal helped push the HPG to utilize propaganda more effectively. The HPG upgraded its website and launched Gerilla TV, which broadcasts video footage from terrorist attacks carried out by the HPG. Thus, the era of Erdal’s command of the HPG can be seen as a period of adaptation to current trends in terms of propaganda and operational tactics. His reference to the PKK’s struggle as a “jihad” in his interview with Med Nuçe TV, thus characterizing the PKK effort as “holy,” indicates a controversial rhetorical shift under Erdal, given the PKK’s Marxist-Leninist ideological position (YouTube, September 18, 2012).

Paris Assassinations

Since October 2015, Bahoz Erdal has been on the Turkish Ministry of Interior’s red list of terrorists (NTV, October 28, 2015), a status reserved for the most influential terrorists.  Among the attacks attributed to Erdal, he is believed to have ordered the assassination of three PKK members in France in 2013. PKK co-founder Sakine Cansız (a.k.a. Sara) was one of the people killed in the attack. She was known to be a close associate of Murat Karayılan — an Executive Committee member with whom Erdal is competing to lead the PKK — and a strong opponent of Bahoz Erdal. In a speech Murat Karayılan made against Erdal in Germany in 2008, he appointed Cansız as a PKK representative. Because of this, she was threatened and sexually harassed by Zübeyir Yılmaz, a close associate of Bahoz Erdal (Dünya Bülteni, January 10, 2013).

Soon after the attack, French police gave a statement indicating they believed the killing possibly to be an extension of PKK infighting (CNNTurk, January 10, 2010; BBC Türkçe, January 10, 2013). There were no signs of forced entry into the office outside where the three were shot. Additionally, at the Kurdistan Information Bureau, a digital lock system was installed and the floor where the shooting took place can only be accessed via an intercom system, indicating that the attackers were well-known to the people inside the office (The New York Times, January 10, 2013). The judge who carried out the investigation in France, François Molins, said he believed the no.1 suspect in the murder is Ömer Güney, who had been a PKK member for two years and a member of the Federation of the Kurdish Associations in France (Hürriyet, January 22, 2013). Güney died of a brain tumor in a hospital in France in December 2016 before his trial was to begin (Reuters, April 16, 2013).

Activity in Syria and Death Rumors

Erdal reportedly travelled in 2013 to Syria ­— where he is believed to have resided since— and was one of the leading commanders in the operation in Manbij against Islamic State (IS) (Sabah, July 24, 2013; CNNTurk, July 12, 2016). Since his reported move to Syria during the Syrian Civil War, there have been several reports of Erdal’s death. First, IS declared that Erdal was killed in Syria (Sabah, November 10, 2014). Then, alleged Tel Hamis Revolutionary Brigade spokesman Hamid al-Hasekavi announced that Erdal – along with eight of his bodyguards — was killed in the northern Syrian city of Qamishli while travelling from Himo to Qamishlo in Syria on July 8, 2016, by a bomb planted in his car (Anadolu Ajansı, July 9, 2016). Even though Turkey’s Anadolu Agency publicized that announcement by the Brigade and several popular news agencies and newspapers in Turkey also reported it, the PKK has strongly rejected the report that Bahoz Erdal had been killed.

Med Nuçe TV broadcast a statement from the HPG Press and Communication Center denying the reports of Erdal’s death and indicating he was still in charge of his men in the field (Birgün, July 9, 2016). Radio station Denge Kurdistan published an interview allegedly featuring Bahoz Erdal on July 13, 2016. In the interview, Erdal declared that, despite the news of his death, he was alive and well (T24, July 13, 2016). Still, questions about Erdal’s condition remain. Erdal prefers to give short audio interviews with no time references or mention of recent developments, making it hard to prove his interview wasn’t pre-recorded long before his reported death. Still, questions about the very existence of Hamid al-Hasekavi and the Tel Hamis Revolutionary Brigade itself further complicate the puzzle, as neither before nor after the incident has the group or its leader been heard of within the context of the Syrian Civil War.

Aside from questions about Erdal’s condition, his presence in Syria and the role he played in the Kurdish Democratic Union Party’s (PYD, Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat) military advances, which are not denied by the PYD or the PKK, are important. Both help establish the link between the PKK and the PYD. It was also reported that Erdal was in charge of a training camp in Qamishli while the PYD strengthened its presence in northern Syria by establishing more than 30 training camps (Habertürk, March 18, 2016). Furthermore, Erdal’s efforts in Iraq, Syria and Turkey were believed to be a key factor behind PYD’s military advances in Syria, especially regarding the case of the Syrian city of Manbij — an offensive which, according to some reports, was planned by Erdal (Hürriyet, July 11, 2016).

A recent NATO study analyzing “killed-in-action” data in Syria confirmed PKK links to groups active in Syria. The study showed the shift of personnel and organic military and organizational ties between all the PKK-affiliated groups in Turkey, Iran and Syria. [1]

Kurdish Freedom Falcons

Bahoz Erdal is also reported to be the founder of the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK, Teyrênbazê Azadiya Kurdistan) (DW, March 17, 2016; Radikal, March 13, 2016), which is designated as a terrorist group by both the United States and the United Kingdom (Home Office [United Kingdom], December 16, 2016; CNN, January 11, 2008 ).  TAK was formed in 2004 in response to a brief cease-fire between the PKK and the Turkish government. Sharing the same ideological line and leadership cult as the PKK, TAK is perceived to be more ruthless in terms of its methods and staunch opposition to any cease-fire or peace talks between the PKK and the Turkish government. No official list of TAK leadership exists. However, it is widely believed that TAK is made up of a faction within the PKK who are opposed to a cease-fire.

In October 2016, the White House released a statement in which it characterized TAK as the “urban military wing of PKK,” providing another faming of the group’s motivation and operational focus (White House, October 9, 2016). In 2012, Human Rights Watch also named TAK as a “group linked to PKK” (Human Rights Watch, 2012). Whatever the case, several key PKK figures, including Bahoz Erdal, reportedly lead the group. Considering Erdal’s established support for continuing terrorist attacks rather than engaging in a peace process — as demonstrated by his clash with Murat Karayılan, who supports the peace process — Erdal certainly serves as an inspiration to TAK, if not directly leads the group.

TAK has gained an increasingly high level of visibility over the last several years. Some of its most tragic terror attacks in 2005 and 2006 targeted tourist destinations, such as Çeşme, Kuşadası and Marmaris (see Terrorism Monitor, July 5, 2012; CNNTurk, August 30, 2006). After Erdal handed over the leadership of the HPG in 2009, the number of TAK attacks increased. Some see this as further evidence of the link between Erdal and TAK. Underlining his stance, in 2011, Erdal harshly criticized Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP, Barış ve Demokrasi Partisi) MPs for being present at the Turkish Grand National Assembly without getting permission from the PKK’s military commanders (Ensonaber, October 5, 2011).

After 2009, TAK, rejecting the “unofficial ceasefire” between Turkey and the PKK, carried out several attacks, most of them targeting security officers in key Turkish cities. The attacks included blowing up a military bus in Istanbul in June 2010, which claimed the lives of four people, including three soldiers; a suicide attack in Taksim Square in October 2010 that claimed the lives of 32 people, including 15 police officers; a February 2016 attack against military buses in Ankara that claimed the lives of 28 military personnel; a car bomb attack in Ankara in March 2016 that claimed the lives of 37 people and injured more than 120 others; a bomb attack in Beşiktaş, İstanbul, which killed 46 people, including 37 police officers, and injured more than 150 people (after which TAK, in a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, called the attack “revenge for Öcalan’s imprisonment”); and the December 2016 attack in the Turkish city of Kayseri, which claimed the lives of 14 soldiers (Hürriyet, February 19, 2016; T24, June 29, 2016; Akşam, December 12, 2016; BBCTürkçe, December 11, 2016).

Conclusion

Amid many controversies about his own health and his rivalry with the other leading figures in the upper echelons of the PKK, Fehman Hussein (a.k.a. Dr. Bahoz Erdal) stands out as one of the most influential figures behind many attacks in Turkey, as well as PYD advances in Syria. Furthermore, Erdal’s Syria activity is evidence of the PKK-PYD connection and thus has indirect repercussions on both regional actors’ policies and Turkey-U.S. relations.

While there is still no confirmation whether Erdal is dead or alive, his impact as a commander is well documented. Erdal has long been a key figure in the PKK, active throughout Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq. He has played major roles in the PKK and HPG leadership, in founding TAK and in PYD operations in Syria. Terrorist attacks under Erdal’s command have claimed many lives, and his active opposition to PKK negotiations with the Turkish government has been regarded as key to ending of the peace process between the two. Whether actively shaping events as a commander or influencing rising militants through his memory, Bahoz Erdal has helped ensure that revival of a peace process seems unlikely in the foreseeable future.

NOTES

https://www.coedat.nato.int/publication/datr/volume8-2016/01-Dead_Men_Tell_No_Lies.pdf