ISTANBUL. While the Turkish government has accused the Kurdish organization of the PKK of being the author of the Istanbul attack, the political group has denied and condemned the attack which targeted civilians. The main suspect and 21 other people have been arrested.
[Mis à jour le 14 novembre à 14h56] Turkey is still reeling from the explosion that hit the busy shopping street of Istiklal on Sunday, November 13, 2022. Who is behind the Istanbul attack? This Monday, November 14, 2022, the Turkish Interior Minister accused the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of being the author of the bomb attack, but the latter denied being responsible for the explosion. However, the Turkish security forces indicated during the day that they had received the confessions of the bomber who allegedly said that she had acted on the orders of the PKK, so who can believe that Turkey and the Kurdish forces have been opposing each other for more than forty year ? Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his part called the explosion that hit Istanbul a “vile attack”.
Is the PKK the author of the Istanbul attack?
“The person who planted the bomb has been arrested,” Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu announced on Sunday evening. This Monday, November 14, the local police is issuing new information on the bomber who is of Syrian nationality and acted on the orders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) according to her own confession. These last elements go in the direction of the accusations of the minister who this morning accused the Kurdish organization of having ordered the attack, in particular the Kurdish forces located in the north-east of Syria and more precisely in Kobané, a Syrian city bordering from Turkey. At midday, the PKK responded to the accusations and denied being behind the Istanbul attack via the press agency Firatclose to the Kurdish organization: “We have no connection with this event, we do not target civilians and reject operations that do”.
Turkish law enforcement is calling the female bomber, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other government officials have said it was a woman. Information that the Minister of the Interior has not confirmed. In the evening from Sunday to Monday, only a few hours after the explosion qualified as an attack, the Minister of Justice of Turkey clarified the sequence of events and indicated that a “bag” was deposited near the place of the explosion by a “woman [qui était] sitting for forty to forty-five minutes and, some time later, an explosion” reports theAFP. Regarding the contents of the bag several assumptions are made: either it contained “a timer” or the bomb was inside and was “remotely activated”. In addition to the main suspect, twenty-one other people were arrested overnight.
What is the outcome of the Istanbul attack?
The Istanbul attack has already claimed many victims, including 6 dead and 81 injured, and the results are still only provisional. Rescuers continue to inspect the cordoned off area in search of victims. “42 wounded (were) still hospitalized, including five in intensive care, two in critical condition,” added Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on the evening of November 13.
The explosion in Istanbul was very violent with a detonation heard from afar and a wall of flames in the buildings caught in the explosion. The Turkish Audiovisual High Council (RTUK) banned the audiovisual media from broadcasting images of the scene to “prevent fear-mongering” and above all avoid “serving the objectives of terrorist organizations”.
Is the Istanbul bombing a terrorist attack?
The Istanbul attack is considered as such only by the Turkish government. Since the explosion in the Istiklal neighborhood no organization has claimed responsibility for the bomb attack as a terrorist attack. But if, as announced by the Turkish capital Ankara, the PKK is indeed behind this explosion, it could be a terrorist act. Ankara but also the United States and the European Union consider the Kurdish group as a terrorist movement. Turkey and the PKK have been fighting each other since the 1980s and in recent years the Kurdish organization has been responsible for several deadly attacks. The denial of the PKK calls into question the thesis of the terrorist attack.
What is the PKK?
The Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) is a Kurdish political and armed organization very active in Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. This group, which defends and campaigns for the independence of Kurdistan, is considered a terrorist organization by a large part of the international community, in particular Turkey, with which there have been numerous clashes since the 1980s, but also the European Union, the United States. United, Australia or Canada. The PKK was founded in 1978 by Abdullah Öcalan, a Kurdish politician of Turkish nationality who has been detained on a prison island in Turkey since 1999 and his life sentence.
The PKK is the main player in the Kurdish conflict that has agitated Turkey since 1984. The clashes oppose Kurdish forces and the Turkish state, which refuses to recognize or cede the territory claimed by the PKK. After a ceasefire concluded between 2013 and respected until 2015, the Kurdish insurrection of 2015-2016 breathes new life into the Kurdish conflict.