Turkey | At least six dead in an attack in the heart of Istanbul

(Istanbul) An attack on Sunday targeted the beating heart of Istanbul, the main city and economic capital of Turkey, killing at least six people and injuring dozens in the busy shopping street of Istiklal.

The high-powered explosion, which also left 81 injured, including two in critical condition, according to a latest report, occurred around 4:20 p.m. (8:20 a.m. ET), when the crowd was particularly dense in this place. promenade popular with Istanbulites and tourists.

Turkish Interior Minister Souleyman Soylu announced a few hours later the arrest of the person responsible for the attack and named the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“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 statement relayed by the official Anadolu agency and local television.

The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara, but also by its Western allies, including the United States and the European Union, is at the heart of a showdown between Sweden and Turkey, which has been blocking since May the Stockholm’s entry into NATO accusing it of leniency towards the PKK.

Ankara demanded the extradition of several members of the PKK in a memorandum of understanding signed in June with Sweden and Finland, another Nordic country wishing to join the Atlantic Alliance.

The PKK, in armed struggle against the Turkish government since the mid-1980s, has often been held responsible in the past for bloody attacks on Turkish soil.

It is also regularly targeted by Turkish military operations against its bases in northern Iraq and Syria.

Last month, numerous accusations relayed by the Turkish opposition and 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.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag referred to a “bag” lying on a bench: “A woman sat on a bench for 40-45 minutes, and some time later there was an explosion. All data on this woman is currently under review,” he continued.

“Either this bag contained a timer or someone activated it remotely,” he added.

At the end of the evening, the Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca announced that “42 injured (are) still hospitalized, including five in intensive care, two in critical condition”.

President Recep Tayyip 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 the State, adding that “a woman would be involved in it”.

“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.

Claimed in part by the Islamic State group, it had killed nearly 500 people and injured more than 2,000.

“Deafening”

The police immediately established a wide security cordon to prevent access to the bruised area for fear of a second explosion. “I was 50-55 meters away, suddenly there was a sound of an explosion. I saw three or four people on the ground,” a witness, Cemal Denizci, 57, told AFP.

“People were running in panic. The noise was huge. There was black smoke. The sound was so loud, almost deafening,” he reported.

According to images posted on social networks at the time of the explosion, it, accompanied by flames, was heard from afar and triggered a movement of panic.

Several bodies lying nearby are visible in the images.

In the neighboring district of Galata, many shops have lowered their curtains early. Some passers-by, who came running from the site of the explosion, had tears in their eyes, noted an AFP journalist.

The Turkish Broadcasting High Council (RTUK) quickly banned broadcast media from broadcasting images of the scene to “prevent fear-mongering” and “serve the objectives of terrorist organizations”.

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.

A street already targeted

The emotion was intense at the end of the day in this district of Istanbul already hard hit in the past. The game of Istanbul club Besiktas has been canceled.

Istiklal Street, which means “Independence”, in the historical district of Beyoglu, is one of the most famous arteries of the city, entirely pedestrianized for 1.4 km. Illuminated towers, criss-crossed by an old tramway, lined with shops and restaurants, it is used all year round by millions of locals and tourists.

She had already been hit in March 2016 by a suicide attack that left five people dead.

This attack, which comes seven months before crucial presidential and legislative elections, has aroused numerous condemnations and expressions of solidarity in the world – Pakistan, India, Italy, Germany, where there is a large Turkish community, Qatar, Jordan or Saudi Arabia …

“All our thoughts to the people of Turkey in these difficult times,” European Council President Charles Michel tweeted. The Secretary General of NATO, of which Turkey is a member, expressed his “solidarity with our ally”, as well as Sweden, a candidate for entry into the Atlantic Alliance.

The White House, in a statement, assured that the United States “stands shoulder to shoulder with our Turkish ally in NATO in the fight against terrorism”.

From France, which commemorated on Sunday the 130 dead from the attacks of November 13, 2015, President Emmanuel Macron assured: “To the Turks: we share your pain”.

Finally, Israel, with which reconciliation has just been sealed, affirmed that “terror will never win”. And Athens, despite strained relations with Ankara, offered “its sincere condolences to the Turkish government and people”.

With Frederik-Xavier Duhamel, The Press