Türkiye directly accuses the PKK of the attack against an aerospace company in Ankara

MADRID 24 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Turkish authorities have accused this Thursday the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) of the attack perpetrated on Wednesday against the main facilities of the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) company in the capital, Ankara, which left at least five dead and 22 injured.

The Turkish Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya, has indicated on his account on the social network Now he has not commented on his possible role in the attack.

“It became clear that the two terrorists who attacked the TAI were members of the PKK,” he said. “We are determined to eliminate from our lands the treacherous terrorist organization that threatens the unity, solidarity and peace of our country,” he added.

For his part, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan that the attack “reinforces Turkey’s determination to eliminate terrorism”, while giving the thanks to the “friends” who have conveyed their condolences to the country, as reported by the Turkish state news agency, Anatolia.

After the attack, the Turkish Army attacked alleged PKK targets in northern Iraq and Syria. The Syrian Kurdish forces reported this Thursday the death of twelve civilians, including two children, as a result of these attacks, with no information on casualties in Iraqi territory for now.

The attack took place hours after the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan, received his first visit in prison in more than four and a half years, a meeting in which he transferred his nephew, Omer Ocalan, who would have the capacity to handle the situation. “from the terrain of conflict and violence to the legal and political terrain”, in apparent reference to a possible negotiation process.

In fact, the leader of the Turkish ultranationalist party Nationalist Action Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli, an ally of Erdogan, proposed this week that Ocalan – detained in 1999 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and later imprisoned in Imrali – go before Parliament to proclaim the “dissolution” of the group and even open the door to its release if it took this step, taking advantage of the “right to hope” law.

The Turkish Army usually carries out military operations against the group in Iraq – where the group has numerous bases – and in Syria since the ceasefire between the Government and the armed group was broken in July 2015. The SDF , supported by the coalition led by the United States, are led by the Kurdish militia People’s Protection Units (YPG), with ties to the PKK.