Turkey’s intelligence agency has recovered two of its senior executives who had been held captive by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq for eight years, with one returning alive and the other confirmed dead, according to a report from a pro-government journalist on Monday.
The deceased officer, Aydın Günel, was buried at Ankara’s Cebeci Military Cemetery. The surviving executive, Erhan Pekçetin, was reportedly reunited with his family after years in captivity, according to journalist Abdülkadir Selvi from the pro-government Hürriyet daily.
Abduction in northern Iraq in 2017
The two men, Pekçetin, head of the National Intelligence Organization’s (MİT) Department for Domestic Ethnic Separatist Activities, and Günel, the agency’s human resources executive for both domestic and foreign operations, were abducted in August 2017 during a covert mission in northern Iraq. Both were high-ranking intelligence officials at the time, serving under then-MİT chief and current Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who led the agency from 2010 to 2023.
According to media reports, MİT had received intelligence that PKK commander Cemil Bayık would visit a hospital in Sulaymaniyah. Pekçetin and Günel were reportedly dispatched to intercept him. However, Lahur Talabani, then-intelligence chief of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), is believed to have tipped off the PKK. The two MİT executives were subsequently captured and publicly identified by the group.
The abduction was largely ignored by most Turkish media outlets and opposition parties, and their captivity remained absent from public debate for years. Only a few exiled journalists and some pro-Kurdish media outlets raised the case, questioning the government’s silence and lack of transparency as well as lack of efforts to return the MİT officers.
Further claims suggested that the PKK subjected the men to torture in an effort to uncover MİT infiltration within its ranks. The results of those interrogations remain unknown, though several suspected informants were reportedly executed in the months that followed. Turkey’s repeated efforts to negotiate the officers’ release were unsuccessful.
Conflicting accounts of Günel’s death
The circumstances surrounding Günel’s death remain disputed. Former opposition lawmaker Hüseyin Aygün said on X on July 31 that Günel died in captivity and was buried a day after his family was informed. He claimed they were not permitted to view the body and that current MİT chief İbrahim Kalın did not attend the funeral.
Sociologist and rights activist Veli Saçılık disputed that version, saying that Günel died of illness in 2022 and was initially buried in the Qandil Mountains where PKK bases are located in northern Iraq. He said the remains were later repatriated to Turkey. The PKK has not issued a statement addressing either claim.
The recovery of the officers coincides with ongoing peace talks with the PKK aimed at the laying down of its arms and its disbanding.
The renewed process was initiated in October 2024 by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, a key government ally. Bahçeli publicly called on jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to urge the militant group to lay down its arms. Öcalan responded in February with a message calling on the PKK to disarm and disband.
On July 11 a group of 30 PKK fighters held a high-profile ceremony in Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq, where they publicly destroyed their weapons in what was described as the first step toward ending the group’s four-decade armed conflict against the Turkish state.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies. It has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, resulting in more than 40,000 deaths.