In a statement posted on its website, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons said Friday it carried out the attack to avenge Turkish military operations against Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey.
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“The Turkish population, regardless of how polarised it is on domestic issues, on the Kurdish issue they are united…that the Kurdish groups fighting Turkey should be dealt with [using] force”, Elshayyal said.
The Turkish government also accused the YPG of being behind the Wednesday auto bombing in the capital, Ankara, which claimed the lives of 28 people. The explosion occurred near military headqu…
At least five people were killed in the administrative heart of Turkey’s capital Ankara on Wednesday when a vehicle laden with explosives detonated as military buses passed near the armed forces’ headquarters, parliament and government buildings.
Both are considered terrorist organizations by Turkey as extensions of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, the PKK that Turkey has been in conflict with for decades.
The leader of the Syrian Kurdish YPG has denied his group was behind the attacks in Turkey, and warned Ankara about a ground action in Syria, the Associated Press reports. The PKK, as well as other Kurdish militant groups, have fought for greater autonomy for Turkey’s Kurdish minority and recent months have seen those calls grow amid surging violence.
The statement casts further doubt on claims by the Turkish government that a member of the Syrian People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Syrian Kurdish group, was behind the attack.
Turkey had significantly escalated its fight against Kurdish groups prior to the bombing, with Turkish T-155 Firtina self-propelled howitzers (SPHs) shelling YPG targets in Syria close to the Turkish border from 13 February.
Erdogan, Turkey’s president, said Wednesday’s attack demonstrated that there are strong links between the PKK and Syrian Kurd fighters. The claim couldn’t be verified.
Turkish authorities earlier detained three more suspects in connection with the bombing.
Christians have suffered due to the ongoing clashes between the Turkish army and Kurdish PKK, with northern Iraqi bishops speaking out against Turkey bombing border villages.
“It has with certainty been revealed that this attack was carried out by members of the terrorist organisation in Turkey in cooperation with a YPG member who infiltrated from Syria”, Davutoglu told reporters. Despite the tension, there are no signs Turkey intends to back down.
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Turkey has also been helping efforts led by the U.S.to combat the Islamic State group in neighboring Syria, and has faced several deadly bombings in the a year ago that were blamed on IS.
