The Turkish Interior Minister announced Monday the arrest of 22 suspects in the bomb attack that killed at least six people on Sunday in the Istiklal shopping street in Istanbul.
Among those suspects is the person who allegedly planted the explosive, Suleyman Soylu said.
“The person who planted the bomb was arrested (…) According to our findings, the terrorist organization PKK [Partido dos Trabalhadores do Curdistão, ilegalizado] is responsible” for the attack, added Soylu, quoted by Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency and local television stations.
The minister also accused Kurdish forces that control most of northeast Syria, considered by Ankara to be terrorists, of being behind the attack.
“We believe that the attack order was given by Kobane,” he said.
In the Battle of Kobane in 2015, Kurdish forces managed to repel the extremist group Islamic State (IS). The city is under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the PKK-based People’s Protection Units (YPG) are a major component.
The attack, which has not yet been claimed, left six dead and 81 injured, half of whom were hospitalized. All the victims are Turkish nationals.
Closed immediately after the attack, the access to the street, frequented by Istanbul residents and tourists, was reopened this morning, Turkish media reported.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was the first to denounce a “vile attack” shortly before leaving for Indonesia, where the G20 summit will take place starting Tuesday. [grupo das 20 economias mais desenvolvidas] in Bali: “first observations suggest a terrorist attack”.
“The perpetrators of this vile attack will be exposed. May our people be safe.” [de que] they will be punished,” promised Erdogan, who already faced a nationwide campaign of terror in 2015-2016.
The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara but also by its Western allies, including the US, on Turkish soil.
In December 2016, 47 people were killed and 160 injured in a double attack near Istanbul’s Besiktas football stadium claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical Kurdish group close to the PKK.
The PKK is also a regular target of Turkish military operations against bases in northern Iraq and Syria.
Last month, numerous accusations broadcast by the opposition and by Turkish observers, but denied by the authorities, concerned the use of chemical weapons by the Turkish army against PKK fighters who published a list of 17 names, accompanied by photographs of people presented as martyrs. .killed by toxic gas.
Source: TSF
