It is also fighting a renewed conflict with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish militant group pushing for autonomy in the southeast, and has been shelling Syrian Kurdish militia fighters across the border. However, Davutoglu said that did not rule out the responsibility of the YPG, calling the TAK a “proxy” that claimed the bombing to shield the worldwide reputation of the Syrian Kurdish fighters. Turkey views the YPG as a terror group because of its affiliation with the PKK. But Turkey has recently pressed the US on its support for the YPG and has even suggested the Americans choose between its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally and a group Ankara considers a terrorist outfit.
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Some 21 suspects held over the Ankara attack were due to appear in court on Sunday, the pro-government Anatolia news agency reported.
“The anti-Daesh strategy is thus faced with a conundrum: While the YPG attacks the other opposition groups fighting against Daesh Daesh remains as powerful and operational as before and the Assad regime gets stronger by the day” Kalin said. Turkey reserves the right to carry out every kind of operations at home and overseas against terror threats, the country’s president said on Saturday, APA reports quoting Anadolu agency.
The PYD “has increased its presence in northern Syria along the border with Turkey by establishing control in Kurdish areas”, the document says. It said he had joined the PKK in 2005 and was based a PKK camp in northern Iraq’s Qandil mountains from then to 2014.
Obama expressed his condolences to Erdogan over the bombing in the Turkish capital, the White House said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (C) prays during his visit to the site of Wednesday’s suicide bomb attack in Ankara, Turkey February 19, 2016, as he is flanked by Interior Minister Efkan Ala (L), Defence Minister Ismet Yilmaz (R) and Governor of Ankara Mehmet Kiliclar.
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Ankara appears increasingly uneasy over the group’s recent gains across its border and has continued to shell the militia despite worldwide calls for it to stop.
