ANKARA: A Czech court’s decision to release a Syrian Kurdish leader wanted by Turkey has highlighted another fault line between Ankara and European countries.
Turkey was seeking a swift extradition of the former Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) co-leader Salih Muslim after his arrest earlier this week in Prague.
Turkey accuses Muslim of being involved in a series of bloody terror attacks, and Ankara was furious that he was released on condition that he stay within EU territory.
Muslim, a Syrian citizen trained as a chemical engineer at Istanbul Technical University, was named on Turkey’s “most sought-after terrorists” list with a $1 million reward offered for his capture.
Muslim has been based in Europe for several years and has been conducting diplomatic meetings around the continent through PYD offices in France, Sweden and the Czech Republic. According to Russian news agency Sputnik, he also has a resident’s permit for Finland.
Ankara considers the PYD a Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization by the EU, US and Turkey.
Should Muslim be extradited to Turkey, he would be the second leading Kurdish political figure to be caught since the arrest of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan in 1999.
Criticizing the court’s decision, Turkish government spokesperson Bekir Bozdag said the ruling “amounts to support for terrorism.”
Meanwhile, Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul said Turkey expects compensation from Czech authorities for the “mistake” made by letting Muslim walk free.
Experts say the decision highlighted Europe and Turkey’s diverging policies on counter-terrorism and Syria.
Nicholas Danforth, a senior policy analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Project, said the ruling shows the extent to which disagreements over the Kurdish issue and rule of law will continue to bedevil Turkey’s relations with Europe, even when both sides want to improve the relationship.
Announcing that “Turkey will pursue Muslim wherever he goes,” Ankara also issued a diplomatic note to Prague.
Meanwhile, claims that Ankara would swap two Czech nationals held in custody in Turkey over terrorisms charges have been also been rejected by government officials.
Turkey and the Czech Republic are signatories to the Council of Europe’s European Convention on Extradition that provides for extradition between signatory parties of persons wanted for criminal proceedings. However, there is no bilateral agreement between the two countries in this field, while Muslim is not a Turkish national.
The Czech Republic does not list the list PYD as a terror group.
“It is not the first time that a European country has rejected Ankara’s request to extradite a criminal,” Nursin Atesoglu Guney, dean of economics, administrative and social sciences at Bahcesehir Cyprus University, told Arab News.
“For instance, Belgium has been a haven for many members of Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party, another left-wing terror group, and Brussels repeatedly ignored Ankara’s demands for their extradition, as in the case of Fehriye Erdal, who killed a prominent Turkish businessman and fled to Belgium,” she said.
According to Guney, such rulings show the EU’s hesitant approach to fighting terrorism.
“The only positive side of this release decision is to send a warning to all other wanted PYD members that they will not have a free hand in Europe due to arrest warrants issued for them,” she said.
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‘Support for terrorism’: Turkey condemns release of Syrian Kurdish leader
‘Support for terrorism’: Turkey condemns release of Syrian Kurdish leader
MSF calls Israeli ban a ‘grave blow’ to Gaza aid
- Doctors Without Borders is among 37 foreign humanitarian organizations banned from the territory
- The group, which has hundreds of staff in Gaza, says: 'Denying medical assistance to civilians is unacceptable'
JERUSALEM: International charity Doctors Without Borders Friday condemned a “grave blow to humanitarian aid” after Israel revoked the status it needs to operate in Gaza for refusing to share Palestinian staff lists.
Israel on Thursday confirmed it had banned access to the Gaza Strip to 37 foreign humanitarian organizations for refusing to share lists of their Palestinian employees.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories, the majority of them in Gaza, said in a statement that “denying medical assistance to civilians is unacceptable under any circumstances.”
The medical organization argued that it had “legitimate concerns” over new Israeli requirements for foreign NGO registration, specifically the disclosing of personal information about Palestinian staff.
It pointed to the fact that 15 MSF staff had been “killed by Israeli forces,” and that access to any given territory should not be conditional on staff list disclosure.
“Demanding staff lists as a condition for access to territory is an outrageous overreach,” the charity said.
MSF also denounced “the absence of any clarity about how such sensitive data will be used, stored, or shared,” charging that Israeli forces “have killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of civilians” in Gaza during the course of the war.
It also charged that Israel had “manufactured shortages of basic necessities by blocking and delaying the entry of essential goods, including medical supplies.”
Israel controls and regulates all entry points into Gaza, which is surrounded by a wall that began to be built in 2005.
Felipe Ribero, MSF head of mission in the Palestinian territories, told AFP that all of its operations were still ongoing in Gaza.
“We are supposed to leave under 60 days, but we don’t know whether it will be three or 60 days” before Israeli authorities force MSF to leave, he said.
Prominent humanitarian organizations hit by the Israeli ban include the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), World Vision International and Oxfam, according to an Israeli ministry list.
The ban, which came into effect on December 31, 2025 at midnight, has triggered widespread international condemnation.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
MSF says it currently supports one in five hospital beds in Gaza and assists one in three mothers in the territory, and urged the Israeli authorities to meet to discuss the ban.
Israel on Thursday confirmed it had banned access to the Gaza Strip to 37 foreign humanitarian organizations for refusing to share lists of their Palestinian employees.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories, the majority of them in Gaza, said in a statement that “denying medical assistance to civilians is unacceptable under any circumstances.”
The medical organization argued that it had “legitimate concerns” over new Israeli requirements for foreign NGO registration, specifically the disclosing of personal information about Palestinian staff.
It pointed to the fact that 15 MSF staff had been “killed by Israeli forces,” and that access to any given territory should not be conditional on staff list disclosure.
“Demanding staff lists as a condition for access to territory is an outrageous overreach,” the charity said.
MSF also denounced “the absence of any clarity about how such sensitive data will be used, stored, or shared,” charging that Israeli forces “have killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of civilians” in Gaza during the course of the war.
It also charged that Israel had “manufactured shortages of basic necessities by blocking and delaying the entry of essential goods, including medical supplies.”
Israel controls and regulates all entry points into Gaza, which is surrounded by a wall that began to be built in 2005.
Felipe Ribero, MSF head of mission in the Palestinian territories, told AFP that all of its operations were still ongoing in Gaza.
“We are supposed to leave under 60 days, but we don’t know whether it will be three or 60 days” before Israeli authorities force MSF to leave, he said.
Prominent humanitarian organizations hit by the Israeli ban include the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), World Vision International and Oxfam, according to an Israeli ministry list.
The ban, which came into effect on December 31, 2025 at midnight, has triggered widespread international condemnation.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
MSF says it currently supports one in five hospital beds in Gaza and assists one in three mothers in the territory, and urged the Israeli authorities to meet to discuss the ban.
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