Terror returns to the City: The PKK denies Turkey’s accusations of the attack – Greece is also in the “frame”

The nightmare of terrorism has reawakened in Istanbul five years after the January 1, 2017 terrorist attack in Istanbul’s luxury Reina nightclub.

Yesterday’s tally of the “terrorist attack” as characterized by the Turkish authorities on one of the busiest streets of the city, on the Istiklal shopping street which is just one block from Taksim Square, is six dead, among them a father and his daughter and 81 injured.

The deafening noise heard at noon on Sunday on a pedestrian street that 2 million people cross every day caused shock and chaos with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announcing that the city had come under a “sneaky attack”. Then the vice president of Turkey, Fuat Oktay speaks for the first time about a “terrorist attack” awakening nightmarish memories in the city of 16 million inhabitants.

The Turkish authorities made a fool of the security cameras and according to the Turkish Minister of the Interior Suleiman Soylu, 46 persons were arrested as suspects.

A 23-year-old woman from Syria is responsible for the explosion, signed PKK

On Monday morning, Turkish media broadcast video showing security forces handcuffing a woman lying on the ground. Special police forces to enter an apartment, handcuff the woman and carry out checks discovering, among other things, weapons.

Taksim istiklal caddesine bombayı bırşan kadın terörist yakalandı. Iste yakalanma anı… #SonDakika #taksimpatlama #taksim #istiklalcaddesi pic.twitter.com/BrRD5A5RPr

— İsmail Umut Arabacı (@ismailumut) November 14, 2022

A little later, it became known that this is the 23-year-old Ahlam Albasir, a Syrian national, whose details were provided via Twitter by the Turkish journalist Ragip Soylu, who allegedly confessed that she acted under the orders of the PKK.

Turkish media publish the photos showing the arrest of Istanbul bomber pic.twitter.com/WDRklpdjYs

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) November 14, 2022

As everything shows, the 23-year-old left a bag containing the explosive device on one of the benches in Istiklal. After activating it, he allegedly took a taxi to Istanbul’s Esenyurt district, which is near Taksim Square, according to Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, a correspondent in Istanbul.

As he says citing information, the woman “he confessed that he was trained by the PKK as a special intelligence officer and that he had illegally entered Turkey through Afrin-Idlib to take action.” According to the “Anadolu” agency, the 23-year-old managed to cross the city of Afrin in Northern Syria and dive into Turkish territory. For the Ankara government, the order for the terrorist attack came from Kobani in Northern Syria where the PKK and YPG offshoot have their Syrian headquarters.”

The PKK denies any involvement

However, shortly afterwards the PKK itself denied any involvement, while so far no organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.

“It is known that we have nothing to do with this incident, that we do not target civilians and reject actions that target them,” the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) said in a statement carried by the PKK-affiliated Firat news agency. “We are a movement waging a just and legitimate liberation struggle (…) It is therefore out of the question for us to target civilians in any way in Turkey,” the statement, which is signed by the People’s Defense Center, an organization of PKK.

The armed Kurdish separatist movement also accused the Turkish government of having “dark plans” and of “targeting Kobani”.

In turn, the Syrian Kurds, who are supported by Washington, denied today that they have anything to do with the bombing. “We assure that our forces have nothing to do with the explosion in Istanbul and we reject the accusations against them,” Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, whose main component, the YPG militia, said in a tweet. was accused by Ankara.

Greece is also in the “frame”.

However, the Turkish Minister of the Interior Suleiman Soylu wanted to put Greece in the “frame” too, claiming that if the 23-year-old suspect had not been arrested, she would have fled to Greece today

“We are not enemies of anyone. I want to express that we do not have the strength to endure betrayal. Business continues. If they hadn’t been caught, they would have escaped to Greece today,” he said characteristically, with Citizen Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos, however, giving a direct and clear answer to Turkey.

“Greece protects its borders well and would never accept terrorists on its soil. Every night we face a lot of pressure on our borders”, the minister answered, among other things, speaking on Monday morning on SKAI.

Turkey rejects US condolences

At the same time, Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu rejected a condolence message from the United States.

“We do not accept the message of condolence from the American embassy,” the Turkish minister said at the same time, although yesterday White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre issued a statement according to which: “The United States strongly condemns the act of violence that occurred in Istanbul, Turkey ».

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