On Monday, the Turkish interior minister accused the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of being responsible for an explosion in a main retail street in Istanbul that resulted in the deaths of six people. He also said that a suspect had been detained in connection with the incident.
On Sunday afternoon, an explosion occurred on Istiklal Street in Turkey, which is a famous shopping location for both residents and visitors. As a result of the explosion, scores of people were injured. By the early hours of Monday, a suspect had been taken into custody.
The individual who was responsible for planting the device has been apprehended, according to a statement made by Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and carried by the official Anadolu news agency. “The PKK terrorist organization is responsible,” he added, citing the conclusions of his team’s investigation.
Since the 1980s, the PKK, which is considered a terrorist organization by both Ankara and its Western supporters, has maintained a bloody insurgency in southeast Turkey in an effort to establish Kurdish self-rule.
Regularly the target of Turkish military operations, the PKK is also at the center of a dispute between Sweden and Turkey. Since May, Turkey has been preventing Sweden’s entrance into NATO on the grounds that it shows too much lenience toward the PKK. Sweden has denied these allegations.
Istiklal was the target of what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to as a “vile attack.”
At a press conference on Sunday, Erdogan said, “It might be wrong if we say for sure that this is terror, but according to first signs… there is a smell of terror there.”
Vice President Fuat Oktay of Turkey said, “We believe that it is a terrorist act carried out by an attacker, whom we consider to be a woman, exploding the bomb.” Oktay’s statement was made in response to a question.
Bekir Bozdag, the Minister of Justice, said that a lady had been seated on one of the seats for more than forty minutes before she eventually got up and left.
According to what he said on A Haber television, “one or two minutes later, an explosion occurred.”
He said, “There are two different possibilities.” “This bag either has a mechanism placed in it that causes it to explode, or someone remotely causes it to explode,”
“Every piece of information pertaining to this woman is being reviewed right now,” he said.
The statement made by Soylu did not provide any other information on the lady.
Cities in Turkey have been attacked in the past by militants and other organizations on several occasions.
Istiklal Street was attacked as part of a coordinated campaign of violence that took place in Istanbul and other cities in Turkey, including Ankara, between 2015 and 2016.
These bombs, which resulted in the deaths of about 500 people and injuries to over 2,000 others, were mostly attributed to the terrorist organization known as Islamic State as well as illegal Kurdish insurgents.
On Sunday, an explosion took place in a popular commercial district just after 4:00 pm (1300 GMT).
After the incident, there were reports of helicopters flying above the city center. Because the police were concerned about the possibility of a second explosion, they set up a substantial security perimeter to block off the area.
Images that were shared on social media showed that the explosion was soon followed by flames, which caused instant fear and sent people fleeing in all different directions.
It was reported that many corpses were found laying on the ground in the area.
