At a news conference on Aug. 14, Bourujerdi did not name Karayilan.
Earlier, reports from Turkey's state-owned media identified Karayilan as the
detainee, Middle East Newsline reported.
The Teheran regime as well as imprisoned PKK commander Abdullah Ocalan
have denied the capture of Karayilan. At one point, Turkish Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu called his Iranian counterpart in an attempt to confirm the
identity of the captured Kurdish commander.
"The news is true," Bourujerdi said.
Later, Bourujerdi denied that he meant that Karayilan was nabbed by
Iranian security forces. Instead, the parliamentary chairman, in a meeting
with Turkey's ambassador to Teheran, asserted that he said "Karayilan should
be captured."
The reports of Karayilan's capture came amid an Iranian offensive in
northern Iraq over the last month. Kurdish sources said the Turkish military
was coordinating with the campaign by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
Turkey has been mulling a major military offensive in northern Iraq in
September. On Aug. 17, at least eight Turkish soldiers were killed in a
bombing attributed to the PKK.