Correspondent on the explosion in Istanbul: “Of course, there is immediate speculation”

It is still unclear who is responsible for the explosion in Istanbul. Noisy ARD correspondent Mayer-Rüth a connection with the forthcoming presidential election is conceivable. The imposed news ban is nothing unusual.

The blast in central Istanbul, which killed six people and injured another 53, happened at 4:20 p.m. local time, reports ARD correspondent Oliver Mayer-Rüth on tagesschau24. Immediately after the explosion, the police began cordoning off a large area of ​​the site. As usual, Istiklal Street was very busy on a Sunday afternoon. “People push past each other there.”

When asked what was known about the background to the crime, Mayer-Rüth ​​explained that there was “of course speculation” in the media and on social networks. In 2016 there was an attack on this shopping street that killed several people. This was attributed to the “Islamic State”. In addition, there were attacks in the capital Ankara in 2016, for which the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK was blamed.

“There are also considerations that the Gülen movement could be behind it,” Mayer-Rüth ​​continued. The Turkish government has accused the Gülen movement of instigating and carrying out the 2016 coup attempt. There are many surveillance cameras on the shopping street, so Mayer-Rüth ​​may be able to find out more about the mastermind behind the attack.

Connection to presidential election?

Politicians have not yet officially commented on the explosion, but one could possibly make a connection to the presidential elections that will take place in Turkey in a few months. “There were also elections in 2015,” says Mayer-Rüth, “and there were also attacks beforehand.”

The news ban temporarily imposed by the Turkish broadcasting authority Rtük is nothing unusual in Turkey. The authorities wanted to have time to investigate in peace. ‘If there are too many media at the scene of the attack, it hinders the investigators.”