Attack in Istanbul: Arrest and allegations against the PKK

After the explosion in Istanbul, the authorities assume an attack. According to the Interior Minister, a suspicious person was arrested – they are said to have planted a bomb. He accused the PKK and announced retaliation.

After the attack that killed six people in Istanbul, the police arrested a suspect. The state-affiliated broadcaster TRT quoted the Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu as saying that emergency services arrested the person who planted the bomb on the busy Istiklal shopping street. There are connections to the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK. Soylu announced retaliation, according to TRT. The attack on the busy shopping street killed six people and injured 81 people.

The Turkish government had previously stated that a woman was suspected of planting a bomb on the promenade, which is also popular with tourists. Vice President Fuat Oktay described the act as a “terrorist attack”. At first there was only talk of an explosion. A fireball, people covered in blood and shattered shop windows can be seen in pictures and videos on the Internet.

As early as March 2016 there had been a suicide attack on the shopping street. At that time, five people were killed. The Turkish government blamed the IS terrorist militia. However, the group did not admit to the crime at the time.

Erdogan: Turkey will not be subdued by terror

On Sunday afternoon, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a press conference and spoke of an attack: “The efforts to subdue Turkey and the Turkish nation through terrorism will not be as successful today and tomorrow as they were yesterday,” he said. “Our people should be assured that the perpetrators of the Istiklal Street incident will be punished as they deserve by exposing all the background of the incident.” At the early stage, however, he did not provide any information about the backers.

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, among others, expressed her sympathy. “Terrible pictures come from Istanbul,” said the Green politician on Twitter. “My thoughts are with the people who just wanted to stroll down Istiklal shopping street on a Sunday and have now fallen victim to a massive explosion.” US President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, condemned the “act of violence”: “We stand side by side with our NATO ally Turkey in the fight against terrorism.”

News blackout imposed

The Turkish broadcasting regulator RTük imposed a news ban on Sunday afternoon. You want to avoid fear and panic. Turkish broadcasters then stopped reporting on the explosion. Pictures and information followed later. Social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter only worked to a limited extent at times.

The PKK is on terrorist lists in Turkey, Europe and the US, and has positions in south-eastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Their headquarters are in the northern Iraqi Kandil Mountains. The government in Ankara regularly takes action against the PKK and has maintained military posts in northern Iraq since 2016. The conflict, which has been going on since 1984, has so far claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people. A ceasefire failed in the summer of 2015.