Less than 11 hours after an attack that killed six people in central Istanbul, authorities have accused a Syrian woman of carrying out a plan by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and, by extension, YPG militias, who were part of the Western alliance to fight the Islamic State. Both organizations denied involvement in the attack.
“The person who planted the bomb has been arrested,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in a statement released Monday by the official Anadolu news agency. “According to our findings, the terrorist organization PKK is responsible,” Soylu said.
Listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, the PKK has led an armed struggle for Kurdish self-determination in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s, but denies any role in the attack. “Our people and the democratic public know that we have no connection to this incident, that we will not directly target civilians and that we will not accept any actions against civilians,” the PKK said in a statement.
“We believe the attack order was given by Kobane,” the Turkish minister said, referring to a town in Syria close to the Turkish border. The Syrian Kurdish Democratic Forces (SDF) also denied any role in the bombings. “Our troops have nothing to do with the attack in Istanbul,” said Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the SDF, allies of Western countries in the fight against the Islamic State. Turkey considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the main component of the SDF – as an extension of the PKK.
Police said the prime suspect in the Istiklal Avenue blast, which killed six people and injured more than 80, is a Syrian woman who confessed to working for Kurdish militants. A total of forty-six people have been arrested, police said.
Police footage released by Turkish media shows a woman being held in an apartment in Istanbul. Police, quoted by NTV, identified her as Alham Albashir and said she was arrested at 2:50 am in a suburb of Istanbul.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said a woman sat on a bench for more than 40 minutes and “then got up”, leaving a suitcase behind. “A minute or two later there was an explosion,” Bekir said.
On Monday, all benches were removed from Istiklal Avenue, where residents had placed red carnations at the site of the blast.
That road has already been the target of attacks in 2015-2016, which preceded the election campaign and were blamed on the Islamic State and Kurdish militants. Nearly 500 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured.
The PKK, a regular target of Turkish military operations, has also been at the center of a dispute between Sweden and Turkey, which has blocked Stockholm’s – and by extension Helsinki’s – bid for NATO since May, as it is accused of condescension towards the group.
condolences declined
International condemnation came from around the world, including the United States, but on Monday Turkey said it rejected Washington’s condolences for the attack.
The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has often accused the United States of supplying weapons to Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, the YPG, which Ankara has labeled as a terrorist group linked to the PKK. “We do not accept the message of condolence from the US embassy. We reject it,” Soylu said.
Source: DN
