Why did Turkey issue a red notice for PYD leader Salih Muslum?

Released by a Czech court on Tuesday, despite Ankara having issued a red notice for him, former Democratic Union Party (PYD) Co-Chair Salih Muslum remains on Turkey's most-wanted list due to his terrorist activities and close links to several attacks.

Muslum was first investigated after a terrorist attack hit Ankara's Merasim Street in February 2016. Ankara had issued the first red notice for Muslum on Feb. 17, 2016, while arrest warrants and subsequent red notices for him and 47 high-ranking PKK figures were issued in November 2016.

The attack involved a car bomb that killed 29 civilians and military personnel and injured 61 others. The location of the explosion was some 300 meters from Parliament and military headquarters on one of Ankara's main east-west arterial roads.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), which is affiliated with the PKK terrorist organization, claimed responsibility for the attack, but security officials dismissed the claim and said that evidence suggested that it was carried out by the PKK's Syrian affiliate Democratic Union Party's (PYD) People's Protection Units (YPG) militia.

The TAK is identified as a hawkish splinter group of the PKK; as if the PKK distances itself from violence, attacks, and bombings.

The second warrant for Muslum was issued a year later after another terrorist attack hit Güvenpark, in Ankara. In March 2017, Muslum was accused of disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the Turkish state, murder, damage to property and delivering hazardous material in relation to the attack.

On March 13, a bomb-laden vehicle exploded between two passenger buses near crowded bus stops in the city center, killing 36 civilians. TAK again claimed responsibility.

The latest warrant for Muslum, alongside 32 other terrorism suspects, was issued in relation to an attack that took place in Çukurambar, Ankara, on Feb. 1, 2018.

The explosion occurred in the boiler room of a tax office located in the city's Çukurambar neighborhood. The building was closed at the time. The only employees at the tax office were security personnel, local media said.

A government statement said that the main suspect in the attack, identified as Ersen Ertoğan, was dead. The 26-year old, who reportedly received training in a YPG-held area in Syria, was carrying a fake ID card and reportedly entered Turkey illegally.

Three people were slightly injured in the attack.

On Feb. 13, Ankara included Muslum on its updated most-wanted terrorists list with a TL 4 million ($1.05 million) bounty on his head and issued a red notice for him because of the attack on Merasim Street.