Turkey: All signs indicate PKK behind latest bombing

Erdogan says country ‘under combined attack,’ singling out Kurdistan Workers Party as ‘divisive terrorist organization’

This picture obtained from the Ihlas News Agency shows injured people waiting for an ambulance following an explosion in Kayseri, central Turkey on December 17, 2016. (AFP/Ihlas News Agency)
This picture obtained from the Ihlas News Agency shows injured people waiting for an ambulance following an explosion in Kayseri, central Turkey on December 17, 2016. (AFP/Ihlas News Agency)

ISTANBUL, Turkey — All signs so far indicate that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) was behind a deadly suicide bombing targeting a bus carrying Turkish soldiers that left at least 13 dead and dozens wounded, a top minister said on Saturday.

“All indications at present point to the PKK. We have to take into account all possibilities but the signs at present point to the PKK,” Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus told NTV television in an interview.

The bomb exploded at the entrance gate to a university in the central province of Kayseri, a week after a similar attack claimed by Kurdish militants killed 44 people, mainly riot police posted outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul.

The army said 48 troops were wounded among the wounded in Saturday’s “treacherous attack.” The state-run Anadolu Agency said the explosion was at the entrance gate of Erciyes University, hitting a public transportation bus that included soldiers among its passengers.

This picture obtained from Dogan News Agency shows people protesting in front of the offices of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) following a suicide car bombing in Kayseri on December 17, 2016. (AFP PHOTO/DOGAN NEWS AGENCY)
This picture obtained from Dogan News Agency shows people protesting in front of the offices of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) following a suicide car bombing in Kayseri on December 17, 2016. (AFP/Dogan News Agency)

Minister Suleyman Soylu, speaking in Kayseri, said six of the wounded were in critical condition. Images taken moments after the explosion showed a smoking public bus, still in flames, with its windows blown open and its interior blackened.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the statements of top officials suggested suspicion was focused on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which Ankara and the West consider a terrorist organization.

Kurdish militants have claimed multiple attacks against soldiers and police across Turkey this year in violence that has also caused casualties among civilians.

“Turkey is under a combined attack by terrorist organizations, especially the divisive terrorist organization,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement released by his office Saturday, referring to the PKK.

The Turkish state has fought PKK for decades in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The collapse of a two-and-a-half year ceasefire in July 2015 set the stage for a violent new chapter and ushered vast security operations in the predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Turkish police officers and forensic work on the site where a car bomb exploded near the stadium of football club Besiktas in central Istanbul on December 10, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE)
Turkish police officers and forensic work on the site where a car bomb exploded near the stadium of football club Besiktas in central Istanbul on December 10, 2016. (AFP/Ozan Kose)

Turkey is also at odds with Western-backed Kurdish factions fighting against the Islamic State in neighboring Syria and Iraq. Turkey views these groups as extensions of the PKK.

“We know that these attacks we have endured are not unrelated to happenings in Syria and Iraq, or even our economical fluctuations,” Erdogan said.

A state of emergency was declared following a botched July 15 coup attempt, and remains in force.

Turkey’s prime ministry office imposed a temporary blackout on coverage of the explosion and urged media to refrain from publishing anything that may cause “fear in the public, panic and disorder and which may serve the aims of terrorist organizations.”

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