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The Turkish government pointed out this Monday, November 14, to Kurdish militants as allegedly responsible for the explosion in Istanbul, which leaves at least six dead and 81 injured. Ankara claims it has detained a Syrian woman suspected of planting the explosive, whom it accuses of having been trained by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia. However, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) denied any link to the attack.
An attack that broke the five-year truce without terrorism in Turkey. The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan points to Kurdish groups as those responsible, but they distance themselves from what happened.
The remarks came after the Turkish Police reported on Monday, November 14, that they had arrested 47 people suspected of participating in the bomb attack, which the day before left at least six people dead in downtown Istanbul.
Among those captured is a Syrian woman, indicated as the alleged person responsible for installing the explosive device on the popular Istiklal avenue, full of shops and restaurants that leads to Taksim square.
According to Ankara, in the middle of an interrogation, the woman, identified as Ahlam al Bashir, confessed that “she was trained as a special intelligence agent by the PKK/PYD/YPG terrorist organization.”
The Istanbul Security Directorate thus referred to the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing, the Kurdish militia People’s Protection Units (YPG), considering both closely linked to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party. , the Kurdish guerrilla in Turkey, considered a terrorist group.
“He said that he received the order from the PKK/YPG/PYD center for an action in Istanbul and that he did so on 11.13.2022 at 4:30 p.m. local time,” the authorities added.
The Istanbul Police Department said that videos from around 1,200 security cameras were reviewed and raids were carried out at 21 locations.
The suspect allegedly left the scene in a taxi after leaving TNT-type explosives on the busy avenue.
Ahlam al Bashir was arrested hours later at her home, just before she allegedly sought to flee to neighboring Greece. She had “illegally entered Turkey from Afrin, Syria, to carry out the attack,” police said.
Kurdish groups reject accusations of their alleged involvement in the attack
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered by Ankara to be a Kurdish guerrilla in Turkey, denied any involvement in the terrorist attack of which the local authorities accuse it.
“We let our people and democratic society know that we have no relation to this action, that we do not attack civilians or accept actions directed against civilians,” the guerrilla command said in a statement published in Turkish and Kurdish by the Firat news agency ( ANF), habitual spokesperson for the PKK.
Turkish authorities have in the past accused Kurdish militants of other attacks. However, in recent years, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led a broad campaign against the militants, as well as Kurdish lawmakers and activists.
Amid skyrocketing inflation and other economic problems, the president’s anti-terrorism campaign is key ahead of next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
Turkey charges against the United States and orders restrictions on the media
In its message of condolences, the White House strongly condemned the “act of violence” in Istanbul: “We stand shoulder to shoulder with our NATO ally (Turkey) in the fight against terrorism.”
However, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu charged the US government for its support for Syrian Kurdish militias in recent years to defeat the self-styled Islamic State in Syria.
Soylu claimed the US condolence message was equivalent to “a murderer appearing first at a crime scene.”
Following attacks between 2015 and 2017 that killed more than 500 civilians and security personnel, Turkey launched cross-border military operations in Syria and northern Iraq against Kurdish militants, while cracking down on Kurdish politicians, journalists and activists.
“In almost six years, we have not experienced a serious terrorist incident like the one we experienced last night in Istanbul. We are embarrassed in front of our nation in this regard,” Soylu said.
Turkey’s media watchdog has placed restrictions on reporting on Sunday’s explosion, a move that bans the use of close-up videos and photos of the explosion and its aftermath. The Supreme Council of Radio and Television has imposed similar bans in the past, following attacks and accidents.
Meanwhile, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya reported that of the 81 people hospitalized, 57 have been discharged. Six of the injured are in intensive care and two of them are in danger of death, he specified. The six people who died in the blast were members of three families and included children ages 9 and 15.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
