A statement by the governor’s office said 48 people were injured, including 46 civilians and two police officers, when the explosion hit the center of city near the AKP’s offices and the governor’s building.
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CNN-Turk television reported that some Iranian tourists in the bustling city were among the injured. Van sits about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Iran.
Turkey’s southeast has been witnessing several bombings and other attacks since past year, when the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) withdrew from a ceasefire agreement with the Turkish government.
Security sources have blamed the PKK for the attack but there has been no immediate claim of responsibility. Footage from local news channels showed water cannons trying to douse flames on the street opposite.
The district, normally busy, was more empty of traffic on Monday, the first day of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
Zahir Soganda, chairman of the ruling party’s Van office, told the Anadolu agency he was aware that threats of such an attack had been made after the mayors were replaced.
The Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, whose mayors were principally affected, condemned the move as “coup by trustees”. “The terrorist organisation has targetted our party building and the AK Party’s presence in the past”.
“Our government took this decision based on all this evidence”, he told reporters in Istanbul.
“They said the failed coup shouldn’t be used as a pretext for a “[Joe] McCarthy-style witch hunt”, referring to the Wisconsin senator who led an anti-communism crusade in the 1950s. Last month the government indicted several top Kurdish parliamentarians over alleged ties to the PKK in a move criticized by the European Union and United States.
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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defended the suspension of 28 mayors, saying it was a long-overdue.
“To me, it is a step that came late”.
“You, as mayors and municipal councils, can not stand up and support terrorist organisations”. You don’t have such an authority.
European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who visited Ankara on Friday (16 September) for talks with Turkish leaders, said she expected steps would be taken in compliance with rule of law.
The PKK is recognised as a terrorist organisation by the European Union, the United States, and Turkey. Later in the day, the U.S. embassy said that Washington was concerned by the reported clashes.
The mayors, who include 24 district mayors, two provincial mayors and two county mayors, a lot of them from the eastern portion of the country, are being prosecuted on charges of assisting the two groups, the Interior Ministry said.
Earlier in the day, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said that attempts to give Ankara a democracy lesson were unacceptable.
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“The statement made by an ambassador yesterday saddened us”.
