As Turkey keeps up attacks against Kurdish rebels in their stronghold in the Qandil Mountains straddling Iran and Iraq, the plight of Turkish soldiers, intelligence operatives and various other Turkish citizens being held by the militants has received scant attention and there is growing worry among their families they might get caught in the middle.
Rights groups have urged the opposition to highlight their plight ahead of critical presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24. Critics charge that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched the latest wave of airstrikes on Qandil to garner nationalist support in the polls. “We are bombing Qandil. And in a few days we will have auspicious news for you,” Erdogan said at a campaign rally on June 15, prompting speculation that either a senior Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) figure would be captured or killed, or the hostages freed.
