Turkey arrests German trying to enter Syria

A Turkish-backed Syrian rebel destroys a poster of Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan in the city of Afrin in northern Syria on March 18, 2018. (AFP)

ANKARA: A German national who was trying to cross into Syria from Turkey has been arrested by Turkish authorities over alleged links to Kurdish militants, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
Anadolu said Patrick Kraicker, 28, was detained on March 14 in the Silopi district of the southeastern province of Sirnak.
Kraicker said he wanted to cross into Syria to join the Syrian Kurdish PYD, according to Anadolu.
Ankara considers the PYD, and its YPG armed group, to be extensions of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s Kurdish southeast.
Anadolu said Kraicker was later arrested for “aiding and abetting a terrorist organization.”
German officials remain deeply concerned about Turkey’s deteriorating record on human rights and freedoms and its military operations in northern Syria.