The armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) has denied any role in an attack on a main Istanbul shopping street, shortly after Turkish officials blamed Kurdish militants for the deadly blast.
Six people died and 81 were injured when a bomb struck Istanbul’s popular pedestrian thoroughfare İstiklal Avenue, timed to strike when it was most crowded. Turkey’s justice minister, Bekir Bozdağ, said that “a woman sat on a bench there for 45 minutes”, and that the explosion occurred moments after she left.
The Turkish interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, said early on Monday the attack was planned in a Kurdish-majority city in northern Syria, blaming militants from the PKK and the People’s Defence Units (YPG).
The PKK denied responsibility for the attack. “We have nothing to do with this incident and it is well known by the public that we would not target civilians directly or approve of actions directed at civilians,” they said, in a statement attributed to the headquarters command of the People’s Defence Centre (HSM), the armed wing of the group, which is banned in Turkey, the US and the EU.
Hours earlier, Turkish officials named a Syrian national, Ahlam Albashir, as the primary suspect in the attack. State-run news agency Anadolou featured video and images of an early-morning raid on Albashir’s residence and her detention. The Istanbul police department said 46 people had been arrested in a series of early-morning raids and taken into custody.
Albashir, they said, “declared that she was trained by the PYD [Democratic Union party]/YPG terrorist organisation as a special intelligence officer”, naming a group with ties to the PKK based in northern Syria, adding that she had entered Turkey through Afrin, a city near Aleppo that has been under Turkish control since 2018. The YPG is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group with US backing that has fought Islamic State militants in northern Syria.
The YPG also issued their own denial of responsibility. “We categorically deny any link to Ahlam al-Bashir, the perpetrator of the terrorist attack,” said a spokesperson, Nouri Mahmoud.
The statements by the PKK and YPG contradicted a barrage of statements from the hardline Soylu, who visited the site in the hours immediately after the deadly blast and claimed that direction for the attack came from Kurdish separatist groups in northern Syria, and specifically the town of Kobanî, also known as Ayn al-Arab, a Kurdish-majority city next to the Syrian border with Turkey.
“Our assessment is that the order for the deadly terror attack came from Ayn al-Arab in northern Syria, where the PKK/YPG has its Syrian headquarters,” he said.
Soylu also used his speech to hit out at the US, whose support for the PYD in northern Syria has been a long-term complaint for Ankara. “I emphasise once again: We do not accept the American embassy’s condolences, we reject it,” he said. “Of course, our alliance with this state should be discussed.”
Kurdish separatist militants and others connected to the Islamic State were blamed for a string of deadly attacks in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, in 2015 and the following year. In March 2016, a suicide bomber who Turkish officials said was connected with IS militants struck İstiklal Avenue close to where Sunday’s attack occurred.
İstiklal Avenue, a hub of trade on Istanbul’s European side, was packed with pedestrians when the blast sent hundreds running in fear. Less than a day after the attack, the street lined with flags had reopened and was bustling with people, including many who came to gather around wreaths and piles of red carnations marking the site of the explosion. A heavy security presence was clearly visible the length of the avenue, including visibly armed police.
“I didn’t come here to work, I came here to check my shop, to see if things were broken. I’m no longer thinking of the next six or seven months in terms of business, as it’s certainly about to drop,” said Barış Batu, who witnessed the explosion from his chocolate shop on the busy street.
Batu looked shaken as he arranged slabs of chocolate in the window, recalling the moment the attack struck. “I jumped up because of the explosion, and saw people thrown in the air with the pressure of the blast. I saw five or six bodies lying on the ground,” he said. “I’m in shock. Why do we live in such a world?”
Others on İstiklal had travelled there to pay their condolences, including two members of Turkey’s opposition conservative nationalist Good party (IYI), who stood close to the site of the blast clutching bunches of red carnations.
“We just hope this will not happen again,” said Ayla Çavuşoğlu, who stood with an IYI party button pinned to her coat and tears in her eyes.
Cavide Karakülah, a local district official, said she travelled for an hour to the site of the explosion from the Esenyurt district in Istanbul. “I would have travelled five hours,” she said. Karakülah wore a scarf made from the Turkish flag and raised her voice as she spoke, echoing the words of the Turkish government, and in particular Soylu.
“We are ready for anything that will come from foreign powers – we don’t accept the United States’ condolences,” she said. “We will catch everyone responsible. This terrorist attack I believe was the work of the PKK, the PYD. I don’t believe that the US’s condolences are genuine, because these are organisations they support – they did this,” she added.
Many of those working in the shops and cafes that line İstiklal Avenue, one of Istanbul’s busiest shopping districts, said they felt shaken after the attack but also obliged to return to work because of Turkey’s ongoing economic crisis, during which the Turkish lira has halved in value in the last year alone.
“I didn’t really want to come to work today, but I have people to take care of,” said a man dressed entirely in black who gave his name as Murat, who worked at a pastry shop overlooking the site of the explosion. “When I see the crowds here, I remember what happened yesterday,” he added.
“Because of the economy, the risk of unemployment – we have to come to work. It’s dangerous, there are usually thousands of people in the street here,” said Özcan Tekinalp, on a break from work at a restaurant on the avenue. “Today is empty compared to most days. But we have to work. I feel unsafe, but this is my work – I have to come to work,” he said.
