Turkey’s spy chief, Hakan Fidan, is planning to travel to the Iraqi Kurdish capital Erbil this week, part of a mission to push for the release of Turkish operatives who are being held by Kurdish militants and presumably also to seek to delay a referendum on Iraqi Kurdish independence, local officials speaking on strict condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor. They declined to elaborate, and a spokesman for Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) did not return Al-Monitor’s calls for comment.

If the reports are accurate, Fidan faces an uphill struggle on both counts. Officials from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have assured Turkey that the two operatives, both Turkish nationals who were reportedly captured by rebels with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), would be released this month.

Mustafa Karasu, a veteran PKK commander, claimed last week in a radio interview that his organization had not just two “high-ranking” Turkish intelligence agents in its custody, but 18 other Turkish officials as well. He offered no clues as to if and when they might be freed. Karasu earlier claimed that the Turkish nationals carried diplomatic passports and were responsible for running a network of spies keeping tabs on the PKK.

The PUK governs Sulaimaniyah province, where the sting operation, described in groundbreaking detail by Al-Monitor’s Fazel Hawramy, allegedly took place. The Turks were said to have traveled from Ankara and were nabbed as they were meeting with their contacts within the PKK.