The United States announced on Tuesday that it will offer rewards in return for information on three senior members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged an armed insurgency against Turkey for decades.
The PKK has been blacklisted as terrorist by Turkey, the US and European Union.
On Tuesday, Washington authorized rewards of up to $5 million for information “leading to the identification or location” of Murat Karayilan, up to $4 million for Cemil Bayik and up to $3 million for Duran Kalkan.
The announcement was made by the US Embassy in Ankara following a visit by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer.
The three PKK figures also appear on Turkey’s “most wanted terrorists” list, according to the Interior Ministry, which describes them as being among the leaders of the organization.
The PKK has fought the Turkish state since 1984.
The move could help Washington repair strained ties with NATO ally Ankara.
Relations between Turkey and the United States have begun to thaw since the release from jail last month of American pastor Andrew Brunson.
Turkey has been infuriated by US support for the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the fight against ISIS in Syria. Ankara considers the YPG an extension of the outlawed PKK and, like it, a terrorist organization.
In Turkey, a court sentenced a lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish opposition party to two-and-a-half years in jail on terrorism charges, a party official said on Tuesday.
Mahmut Togrul, a member the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)representing the southeastern province of Gaziantep, was found guilty of spreading propaganda for the PKK at two separate speeches in 2016.
His lawyers have said that Togrul’s remarks did not include any criminal elements and were within the framework of freedom of expression, the state-owned Anadolu news agency said.
Erdogan and his AK Party say the HDP has links to the PKK. The HDP denies any direct links to the PKK and says it is being unjustly targeted by the government.
The HDP has previously said that as many as 5,000 of its members had been detained, the majority of whom were targeted as part of a widespread crackdown following an abortive putsch in July 2016.
Sixteen members of the HDP, including Togrul, have been sentenced to prison, the official said, most on terrorism charges. Of those, 10 are still in prison, the official said.
Selahattin Demirtas, the former head of the HDP and one of Turkey’s best-known politicians, was also sentenced to jail last month, after nearly two years in prison.
