Turkey: US must extradite Syria Kurdish commander

American authorities must extradite the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to Turkey when he enters the United States, Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul said today after Ankara slammed Washington for treating him as a “legitimate political figure”.

On Wednesday, US senators urged the State Department to quickly provide a visa to General Mazloum Kobani so he can visit America to discuss Syria. Ankara says he is a terrorist linked to Kurdish militants waging an insurgency in Turkey.

Speaking to reporters, Gul said Turkey will demand that US authorities detain Mazloum as soon as he enters the United States. He said the foreign ministry had conveyed the extradition request to the United States.

Fifty-two-year-old Kobani has been invited to the US to brief senators on the situation which has resulted from Turkey’s recent military campaign in north-east Syria. “To say we are extremely concerned with the situation unfolding in northern Syria is an understatement,” the bipartisan group of senators said.

Kobani was a high-ranking figure in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatists militia which is classed as a banned terrorist organisation in Turkey, the US and the EU, before he joined the group’s Syria offshoot the SDF.

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