PKK under suspicion

Turkey bombs Syria and Iraq after attack

Two men shot dead five people on Wednesday.

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur)

Following the attack in Ankara that left at least five people dead, Turkey has attacked targets in northern Syria and northern Iraq from the air. According to the state news agency Anadolu, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced late Wednesday evening that 32 targets had been destroyed.

"Our airstrikes will continue in a determined manner." A few hours earlier, the government had linked the attack to the banned Kurdish underground organization PKK.

Turkey regularly takes action against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), headquartered in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq, as well as against the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG (People's Defense Units) in northern Syria, which it regards as an offshoot of the PKK.

Several dead in attack
At least five people were killed and 22 injured in Wednesday's attack on one of Turkey's most important arms companies. The two suspected attackers were also killed, said Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya. The attack bore the hallmarks of the PKK, the minister said. A short time later, Anadolu reported on the airstrikes in neighboring countries. The Turkish broadcasting authority Rtük had imposed a news blackout in connection with the issue.

The shock in Ankara runs deep.

(Bild: AP/Yavuz Ozden)

The target of the attack, the Turkish Aerospace Industries Company (TUSAS), is a subsidiary of the state defense industry agency and four of the five victims were employed by it. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke of a "cowardly attack" on a mainstay of the Turkish defense industry.

Approach followed attack
The company is a major producer of fighter jets and drones, among other things. According to analyst Murat Yetkin, TUSAS drones are used by Turkey in the fight against both the PKK and the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia.

The current attack occurred shortly after the ultra-nationalists of the MHP party surprisingly raised the issue of a possible release of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. The MHP is Erdogan's partner in government. However, its leader Devlet Bahçeli had linked this to the disarmament of the terrorist organization.

Observers see this as a sign that there could possibly be a new peace process between the government and the PKK. The last attempt failed in 2015.

Conflict goes back decades
In Turkey, IS, the left-wing extremist Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (DHKP-C) and the PKK have all carried out serious attacks in the past, including in Ankara. The PKK has been fighting against the Turkish state since the 1980s. It is classified as a terrorist organization by Ankara, the European Union and the USA.