(Istanbul) Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the attack that killed at least six people on Sunday in the commercial thoroughfare of Istiklal, in Istanbul, and announced the arrest of about twenty suspects, including one who allegedly planted the bomb.
Updated at 12:20 a.m.
“The person who planted the bomb has been arrested. […] According to our conclusions, the terrorist organization PKK is responsible” for the attack, said Mr. Soylu in a nocturnal statement, relayed by the official Anadolu agency and local television.
21 other suspects were also arrested, he added.
The minister also accused Kurdish forces who control most of northeastern Syria, which Ankara considers terrorists, of being behind the attack.
“We believe that the order for the attack was given from Kobane,” he added.
A city that has remained famous for the battle which, in 2015, enabled Kurdish forces to repel the Islamic State group, Kobané is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) whose People’s Protection Units (YPG), allied to the PKK, are a major component.
The attack, which has not been claimed, killed six people and injured 81, half of whom had to be hospitalized. Among the victims, all Turkish citizens, are a 9-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl.
The attack occurred in the middle of the afternoon in the ultra-popular pedestrian street of Istiklal on Sunday, which Istanbulites and tourists walk.
Closed immediately after the attack, access to the street is allowed again on Monday morning, Turkish media reported.
Mr. Soylu did not specify the conditions under which the suspected “person” was arrested, nor whether it is a “woman” as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and then his deputy had affirmed on Sunday evening. President Fuat Oktay.
The Minister of Justice, Bekir Bozdag, had earlier mentioned a “bag” placed on a bench: “A woman sat on a bench for 40 to 45 minutes and, one or two minutes later, there was a blast. All data on this woman is currently under review,” he continued.
“Either this bag contained a timer or someone activated it remotely,” he added.
President Erdogan was the first to denounce a “vile attack”, just before flying to Indonesia and the G20 summit in Bali: “The first observations suggest a terrorist attack”, said the head of state , adding that “a woman would be involved in it”.
PHOTO KEMAL ASLAN, REUTERS
The explosion occurred shortly after 4 p.m. (8 a.m.), when the crowd in Istiqlal Street, a popular Sunday stroll for Istanbul residents and tourists, is particularly dense.
“The perpetrators of this vile attack will be unmasked. Let our people be sure (that they) will be punished”, promised Mr. Erdogan who had already faced a campaign of terror across the country in 2015-2016.
Access to social media was also restricted in Turkey after the attack, according to online restrictions monitor Netblocks. “We cannot use social media,” confirmed to The Press Mahmut Tas, an employee of the Petros Hotel, located near the site of the explosion.
“We are awaiting information from the government,” said an employee of the Grand Hotel in London who presented himself to The Press like Talib Is and also had no access to social media on Sunday night. “People just panicked” after the explosion, and some customers canceled their trips, he added. “Of course everyone is scared,” he blurted out.
PKK and NATO
The explosion, of strong power and accompanied by high flames, was heard from afar and triggered a movement of panic among the many onlookers.
“People were running in panic. The noise was huge. There was black smoke. The sound was so loud, almost deafening,” a witness, Cemal Denizci, 57, who saw several people lying on the ground, told AFP.
The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara but also by its Western allies including the United States and the European Union, has been in armed struggle against the Turkish government since the mid-1980s. It has often been held responsible by history of bloody attacks on Turkish soil.
In December 2016, a double attack near the Besiktas soccer stadium in Istanbul – 47 dead including 39 police officers and 160 injured – was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical Kurdish group close to the PKK.
The PKK is also at the heart of a showdown between Sweden and Turkey, which has been blocking Stockholm’s entry into NATO since May, accusing it of leniency towards the PKK.
Ankara demanded the extradition of several of its members in a memorandum of understanding signed in June with Sweden and Finland, another Nordic country wishing to join the Atlantic Alliance.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited Ankara last week and promised Mr Erdogan to address Turkey’s “concerns”.
The Swedish Parliament is also preparing to vote to change the constitution in order to toughen its anti-terrorism legislation.
The PKK is also regularly targeted by Turkish military operations against its bases in northern Iraq and Syria.
Last month, many accusations relayed by the opposition and Turkish observers, but denied by the authorities, referred to the use of chemical weapons by the Turkish army against PKK fighters who published a list of 17 names , accompanied by photos of people presented as “martyrs” killed by poison gas.
With Frederik-Xavier Duhamel, The Press