The Ministry of Justice of Armenia has not transferred persons of Kurdish nationality Atilla Çiçek and Hüseyin Yıldırım to Turkey, the Ministry said in a statement on Monday, September 26.

On Sunday, the National Security Service of Armenia also made a comment on this issue, describing the information as “false” and having “no legal basis”.

“In addition to the report of the National Security Service, we inform that the Ministry of Justice is authorized to transfer convicts to their country of citizenship to serve the remaining sentence. However, the transfer to Turkey of Atilla Çiçek and Hüseyin Yıldırım, who are Kurds by nationality, has not happened,” the Justice Ministry said.

“Moreover, the issue of extradition or transfer of these persons has not been considered in the Ministry of Justice.”

The military wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) said in a statement on September 24 that Armenia had handed over two of its fighters to Turkey. Turkey’s state media had claimed earlier that the country’s National Intelligence Agency (MİT) had brought the two to Turkey “in an operation” on the border.