Attack in Türkiye | Turkey’s airstrikes against PKK ‘targets’

(Ankara) Air strikes carried out by Turkey targeted several sectors of autonomous Kurdistan in northern Iraq on Sunday evening, a local official told AFP, Ankara confirming having targeted “20 targets” used by Kurdish fighters Turks of the PKK.

“Turkish army planes bombed areas… of the Bradost region at around 9:20 p.m. (2:20 p.m. Eastern Time), just as they bombed the village of Badran,” the Turkish military said. AFP Ihsan Chelabi, mayor of the town of Sidakan, located not far from the borders with Turkey and Iran.

In a statement, the Turkish Ministry of Defense recognized an “air operation” in northern Iraq to “neutralize the PKK”, in reference to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, classified as a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies.

“An air operation was carried out in the areas of Metina, Hakurk, Qandil and Gara in northern Iraq on 1^er October at 9 p.m. […] to neutralize the PKK and other terrorist elements, prevent terrorist attacks coming from northern Iraq against our population and our law enforcement, and ensure the security of our borders,” according to the statement.

The ministry specifies that “20 targets used by terrorists” were destroyed.

These bombings come after a suicide attack by the PKK in Ankara which targeted the police headquarters in the heart of the capital, which left two people injured.

In Iraq, the Kurdish media Rudaw also reports on its website airstrikes on the heights of Mount Qandil, traditionally considered a PKK stronghold near the border with Iran.

Erdogan warns EU and ‘terrorists’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday warned “terrorists” and the European Union, which has kept him “waiting for 40 years”, a few hours after a PKK suicide attack which left two people injured in the heart of the capital, Ankara.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered a “terrorist organization” by Ankara and its Western allies including the EU, claimed responsibility for the attack with the ANF press agency, which is close to it.

This is the first attack for which the PKK has claimed responsibility since September 2022 when it killed a police officer in Mersin (south).

The PKK is at the heart of the controversy between Turkey and Sweden over the latter’s entry into NATO, which the Turkish Parliament, which resumed its work on Sunday, is supposed to validate after seventeen months of waiting. .

Mr. Erdogan, who spoke a few hours after this suicide attack targeting the police headquarters, during which the two attackers were killed, warned that “the villains who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their goals and will never achieve them.

The head of state who addressed the deputies for their inaugural session, however, made no mention of this accession process but attacked Europe.

“Turkey no longer expects anything from the European Union, which has kept us waiting at its door for 40 years,” said the Head of State before the inaugural session of Parliament.

“We have kept all the promises we made to the EU but they have kept almost none of theirs” he denounced, adding that he will not “tolerate new demands or conditions to the process of accession” of Turkey.

“If they intend to end the accession process which only exists on paper, that is their decision.”

The president’s anger stems from a recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights which this week found Turkey guilty of convicting a man of terrorism, based solely on his use of the encrypted messaging application ByLock .

High power explosion

The Minister of the Interior, Ali Yerlikaya, clarified to the press that one of the two attackers in Ankara blew himself up and that the other was shot “in the head”.

The targeted police headquarters, located in the same interior ministry compound, is close to parliament.

The high-power explosion was heard several kilometers away: a video recorded by a surveillance camera shows a gray vehicle slowly parking in front of the police headquarters. The front passenger gets out and walks forward, gun in hand, shoots and blows himself up in front of the police officer’s booth on duty.

A second man rushes in turn but disappears from the image before being killed by the police.

Mr. Yerlikaya called on the press to stop broadcasting images of the attack on social networks.

For its part, the Ankara general prosecutor’s office announced the opening of an investigation. He also banned all Turkish media, in particular televisions, from stopping broadcasting images from the scene of the attack.

The parliament which begins its session is called upon, among other things, to validate Sweden’s entry into the Atlantic Alliance.

Ambiguous position

Since May 2022, Turkey has been dragging its feet to confirm the entry of this Scandinavian country by arguing for its clemency towards “terrorists” and Kurdish movements.

Mr. Erdogan maintains an ambiguous position by arguing that Parliament is sovereign and that only it can decide, or not, to lift this veto.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson quickly assured in a statement that his country “once again confirms its commitment to long-term cooperation with Turkey in the fight against terrorism.”

Many foreign officials also supported Turkey, expressing “solidarity” and condemning the attack, starting with the European Union: Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said he was “shocked”. Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Saudi Arabia, as well as the United States Embassy in Ankara, also condemned the attack.

Ankara was the scene of numerous and violent attacks during the years 2015-2016 claimed by the Kurdish separatists of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or by the Islamic State group.

In the most recent one, in March 2016, a car bomb in the central district of Kizilay left 38 dead and 125 injured. The attack was attributed to TAK, a small radical group close to the PKK.

In October 2015, an attack in front of Ankara Central Station attributed to ISIS left 109 dead.

The last attack recorded on Turkish territory on November 13, 2022, in a shopping street in Istanbul (six dead, 81 injured), was not claimed but was attributed to the PKK by the authorities.