On Tuesday, the PKK Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for an attack on a police station in Sultanbeyli district in Istanbul.
Advertisement
Tensions are high in Turkey after it launched an offensive against Islamic State (IS) jihadists and Kurdish militants following a series of attacks inside Turkey. The drive was aimed at ending a conflict spanning three decades that has resulted in the deaths of 40,000 people.
Also, at least two women were injured in a suspected cluster bomb attack at Diyarbakir’s police headquarters on Thursday, official sources said.
Also yesterday, the US consulate in Istanbul reopened for business, the day after two female members of the banned Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front had opened fire at the heavily protected building.
Since July 24, around 1,700 people have been detained in a wave of counter-terrorism raids, amid a spike in attacks targeting police and the army after a July 20 deadly suicide bombing in the southeastern Suruc district, which killed 32 civilians.
“Erdogan is taking a huge gamble”, said Jenkins, the Istanbul-based author, warning that the PKK could increasingly stage attacks in urban centres outside the largely Kurdish southeast, such as Monday’s bombing in Istanbul, or lose control of angry Kurdish youths altogether.
No one was hurt in the attack which was claimed by an outlawed far-left group.
Baris Tekce, known by his nom-de-guerre Andok and described as the top PKK figure in the southeastern Hakkari region, died on Tuesday in clashes with the security forces, Turkish media said.
Turkish air forces have raided PKK locations in Iraq and in southeast Turkey in conjunction with airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria since last last month. It has been feared that Turkey’s campaign against the PKK would alienate and demoralize other Kurdish groups. It said the attack was carried out in honor of a PKK fighter killed in a Turkish airstrike in northern Iraq.
Turkey, like a number of Western countries, considers the PKK to be a terrorist organisation.
“For us, there is no difference between terrorist organisations”. On Sunday, the U.S. military announced that a detachment of six F-16 fighter jets and some 300 personnel had arrived at Turkey’s southern Incirlik Air Base. Turkish and U.S. officials explained the delay by saying their countries were still working out the details of joint air operations.
Advertisement
Turkey has seen increasing violence in recent weeks between the military and Kurdish separatists.
