The plan, prepared by the Interior Ministry and forwarded to the Prime Minister's Office earlier this week, would also see 2 million to 100,000 euro bounties offered for hundreds of lower-ranked leaders of the terrorist group. The proposed plan also includes a seven-person council which will be governed by officials from the Interior Ministry, gendarmerie and police and set future bounties for PKK leaders. Citing the PKK's recent attack on a police bus that left 16 people injured in İstanbul earlier this month, the plan said more aggressive steps need to be taken to secure the capture of low-level leaders who direct the group's attacks.
Among the most high-profile leaders the state hopes to capture through the bounty system are Murat Karayılan, the acting leader of the PKK since the capture of Abdullah Öcalan in 1999, as well as Cemil Bayık and Fehman Hüseyin, Karayılan's second and third in command officers respectively. The bounty system would also include leaders believed to reside outside of Turkey, including individuals in Syria, Iraq, Iran and 20 leaders of the group's operations in Europe.
Turkey has been conducting air raids on PKK camps in Iraq's northern mountains and inside Turkey since August of last year following the breakdown of a cease-fire and an increase in attacks on Turkish troops and civilians by the PKK. The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's largely Kurdish Southeast since 1984.
The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The group is labeled a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, which has supplied Predator drones to assist Turkey.