NTV television said the explosion happened near a residential block for top-level military staff. The spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Omer Celik, said he strongly condemned the attack, Turkish media reported. Ambulances were seen rushing toward the scene.
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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed a Syrian Kurdish militia fighter working with Kurdish militants inside Turkey for a suicide vehicle bombing that killed 28 people in the capital Ankara, and he vowed retaliation in both Syria and Iraq. Buses carrying military personnel were targeted while waiting at traffic lights at an intersection, the Turkish military said while condemning the “contemptible and dastardly” attack.
The paper did not specify the source for its report and it was not immediately possible to confirm it. A claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s bombing has not yet been made.
A government spokesman said the attack had been well planned.
President Tayyip Erdogan also said initial findings suggested the Syrian Kurdish militia and the PKK were behind the bombing and said that 14 people had been detained. With Turkey now shelling the PYD, this will nearly certainly hurt U.S.-Turkish ties, which is exactly what the PKK would want to achieve from the attack in Ankara. Erdogan said the attack would show the global community the strong links that exist between the PKK and the Syrian Kurdish militias. “Turkey will not hesitate to use its right to self-defense anytime, anywhere, and in all situations”.
There has been a series of apparent Turkish intelligence failures in tracing terrorist groups to at least prevent some of the deadly bombing attacks from occurring.
“The Turkish government will have greater domestic and worldwide legitimacy in attacking PYD positions in northern Syria”, Erdemir, a former member of Turkish parliament, told Business Insider by email. In Iraq next door, the Turkish air force has resumed airstrikes in the Qandil mountains, where the PKK have bases.
Washington, which has said the YPG is not a terrorist group, has backed the insurgents in the fight against Islamic State in Syria.
The 1916 signing of the Skyes-Picot agreement divided up the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, creating the borders of modern day Iraq, Syria, Armenia, and Palestine, among other countries.
Sozcu also carried the same claim, which has yet to be officially confirmed. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of refugees leave every night from Turkey to cross the sea to Greece in smugglers’ boats.
“Indonesia’s government delivers deep sorrow to the victims’ families and hopes for the recovery of injured victims”, it said on its official website. But Ankara’s priorities are fighting the Kurds and defending against terrorism.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “In the battle against those responsible for these inhuman acts we are on the side of Turkey”. The U.S. already lists the PKK as a terror group.
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“It has been revealed that a YPG member who infiltrated from Syria with members of the separatist terror organization conducted this attack”, Davutoglu said.
