The PKK responds to the Turkish government. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party on Monday denied any involvement in the attack which killed at least six people the day before in Istanbul and for which the Turkish authorities attributed it responsibility.
“It is well known that we have no connection with this event, that we do not target civilians and reject actions that do so,” he said in a statement published by the Firat news agency, close to of the PKK.
The PKK, considered a terrorist organization
“We are a movement that leads a just and legitimate liberation struggle. (…) There is therefore no question of targeting civilians in any way whatsoever in Turkey”, added the communiqué signed by the Center for the Defense of the People, an organization of the PKK.
The Kurdish armed movement has also accused the Turkish government of having “obscure plans” and of “showing Kobané as a target”. Earlier in the day, the Turkish police had affirmed that a young woman of Syrian nationality, arrested during the night, had admitted the facts and had acted “on the orders of the PKK”. She would have received instructions to this effect in Kobané, in northeastern Syria, Turkish media reported.
The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara but also by its Western allies including the United States and the European Union, has been in armed struggle against the Turkish government since the mid-1980s. It has often been held responsible by history of bloody attacks on Turkish soil.