Turkish authorities have named the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as “probably” responsible for the attack that left five dead and more than twenty injured on Wednesday against the headquarters of the Turkish Defense Industries, near Ankara. For Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, “the manner in which this action was carried out is very probably linked to the PKK.”
According to him, there were two attackers and they were killed.
“The identification process and the search for fingerprints are continuing and we will say which terrorist organization is behind the attack,” he said, announcing a toll of five dead and 22 injured.
Defense Minister Yasar Gler warned: “We always give these PKK villains the punishment they deserve… We will not give up pursuing them until the last terrorist is eliminated and we will make them suffer for what they have done.”
Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, who visited the wounded in the evening with several members of the government, said that one of the dead, in addition to f
our employees of the site, was a taxi driver whose car was held up by the commando before the attack. And that seven of the wounded were police officers.
The Justice Ministry has announced that it is opening an investigation.
The operation, which took place in the middle of the afternoon about forty kilometers from Ankara, targeting the headquarters of the defense industries, had not been claimed in the evening.
– exchanges of fire –
Private television channel NTV reported a suicide attack, which has not been confirmed, saying that a “group of terrorists” had burst into the entrance to the buildings before one of them “blew himself up”. The explosion, according to media reports, was followed by an exchange of gunfire for more than an hour.
The Sabah newspaper published on its X account a photo from the surveillance cameras at the entrance of the targeted building, showing a young man dressed entirely in black, carrying a backpack and apparently carrying an assault rifle with the caption: “This is one of
the terrorists who attacked #TUSAS.”
Television footage showed large flames followed by white smoke in front of the entrance to the site, before having to cancel the live broadcast on the orders of RTrk, the regulatory body for Turkish radio and television.
Denouncing a “despicable attack” targeting “one of the locomotives of the Turkish defense industry”, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to “break those who lay dirty hands on Turkey”.
“Our fight against all terrorist threats will continue with determination,” he assured on X.
The head of state was in Kazan, Russia, alongside his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who sent him his condolences, “condemning any act of this kind, whatever its motivations.”
– ‘dialogue’ –
This attack comes at a time when the political class seems to want to find a political and negotiated solution to the bloody conflict with the Kurdish fighters.
The main pro-Kurdish party, the Dem (ex-HDP), the third force in parliament, considered it “significant” that it was hap
pening “while Turkish society is discussing solutions to bring about the possibility of dialogue.”
On Tuesday, the president of the MHP (nationalist) Devlet Bahçeli, the main ally of Mr. Erdogan’s AKP party, invited the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Öcalan, 75, in prison since 1999, to speak before Parliament to announce the dissolution of his party, considered a “terrorist” movement by Ankara and its allies.
From his cell in Edirne (west), the former co-president of the Dem and still charismatic Selahattin Demirtas, sentenced to 42 years in prison last May, denounced the attack and a “mentality which tries to bloodily destroy the search for solutions through dialogue”.
“If Öcalan takes an initiative and wants to pave the way for a political (solution), we will support him with all our strength,” he warns: “We will never allow the voice of the (supporters) of peace to be stifled, wherever it comes from.”
Opposition leader in parliament Özgr Özel, chairman of the CHP, who visited Mr
Demirtas in prison on Tuesday, also denounced the “terrorist attack”, adding that he “condemns terrorism, no matter who or where it comes from”.
Many condemnations have poured in from abroad, including that of Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO, of which Turkey is a member, who said he “stands by our ally, Turkey”.
The White House, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Italian, Greek and German officials and the French embassy in Turkey also expressed their condolences and support.
The PKK, which is fighting an armed conflict against the government, carried out an attack in Ankara in front of a police station in October 2023, which left two dead (the attackers) and injured two police officers.
Source: Burkina Information Agency