On Sunday, March 13, a car bomb exploded in the heart of Ankara, Turkey’s capital city. Nearly forty people were killed and 125 were injured by the explosion and subsequent fires, which took place at a busy transit hub. The suicide bomber was identified as Seher Çağla Demir, a Kurdish student and radical. She, along with four other students, were already on trial for alleged membership in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). There are unconfirmed reports of a second bomber.
It seems that Demir spent time in Syria in 2013, training with the People’s Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish rebel group. This group is not designated as a terrorist group by America or the UN; they are engaged in the fight against IS and the United States considers them allies. However, the Turkish government, with their longstanding conflicts with various Kurdish factions, does consider them to be terrorists.
However, the group that claimed responsibility was a different group, the Kurdish Freedom Falcons (TAK); they are a splinter of the more well-known PKK. This group also claimed responsibility for a similar bombing in February, which killed 28 and injured 61. As in that case, the group claimed that the attack was not targeted at civilians, but at a nearby police station. Given the activity in the area and the huge number of civilian casualties, this claim is suspect.
The PKK had had a ceasefire with the government of Turkey until July last year, when the relative peace of two years collapsed. While TAK is not officially part of the PKK, they are closely associated with them and tend to follow their lead; they are also somewhat more radical and more violent.
In a statement on their website, TAK said: “a suicide attack was carried out … in the streets of the capital of the fascist Turkish republic. We claim this attack.” The bombing, they said, was in revenge for Turkish military operations in Cizre, a Kurdish city in southeastern Turkey. They also threatened more such attacks in the future. After the attack, Germany closed its embassy in Ankara, as well as its consulate and a school, citing “concrete indications” that they were to be the target of another attack in the near future.
Turkish authorities arrested eleven people in connection with the attacks. Turkey also performed air attacks on Kurdish rebel groups in northern Iraq. There were widespread reports of social media being blocked in Turkey, on the grounds that they might be used to disseminate graphic images of the attack. There were also heavy media restrictions. Turkish President Erdoğan stated: “Our citizens should not fear, for the fight against terrorism all our national institutions are carrying out in solidarity with the nation will indubitably end in success.”
This Saturday, there was yet another suicide bombing in Turkey, this time in Istanbul. The bomb detonated in a largely diverse area, killing and injuring many foreigners in Turkey. At the time of writing, this incident was very recent and there is little information currently available.
The growing unrest in Turkey is, sadly, only one of the many facets of the complicated situation in the region. The ongoing issues between Turkey and its Kurdish people has a profound effect on neighbouring Syria, and greatly hampers the ability of the west to deal with IS. There is no easy solution in sight.
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