In Turkey, the person suspected of being responsible for the attack in Istanbul has been arrested, according to the Turkish Minister of the Interior. During a first speech, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan…

Maintenance

Istanbul attack: the PKK behind the attack, "one of the possible leads"

Forensic security officers work after the attack in the shopping street of Istiklal, in the heart of Istanbul on Sunday, November 13, 2022. © 路透社图片

Text by: Louis Augry

2 mins

In Turkey, the person suspected of being responsible for the attack in Istanbul has been arrested, according to the Turkish Minister of the Interior.

During a first speech, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had indicated that a woman was behind this explosion which left at least six dead and 81 injured in a busy artery of Istanbul.

For the time being, the attack has not been claimed, but Ankara accuses the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK.

Interview with Jean Marcou, specialist in Turkey, research professor at Sciences Po Grenoble.

Advertising

RFI: The Turkish authorities accuse the PKK of being behind this attack.

Is this a believable lead?

Jean Marcou

: This is one of the tracks since in Turkey, generally, the attacks that have taken place in recent years have come either from Daesh, or from organizations more or less linked to what we know to the PKK, or from the DHKP -C which is an extreme left organization.

So that's one of the possible avenues.

Now, we will have to see which sources exactly the Minister of the Interior [Süleyman Soylu, editor's note] has, who also said that the orders would have come from Kobané, this emblematic city which is on the Turkish-Syrian border and which had been held by the Syrian branch of the PKK, the YPG, in 2014-2015 during the Daesh offensive.

So, we have to see if this information is confirmed.

This attack comes as the PKK is at the center of tensions between Turkey and Sweden.

It is also the object of military operations in Syria for Turkey.

Are we in a particular context?

I would say that there is an immediate context, it is the one that you are effectively pointing out with this controversy over Sweden's membership, and Turkey which accuses Sweden of actually harboring members of the PKK, which blocks or hinder its entry into NATO.

There is also a controversy at present with the Union of Turkish Doctors, since the head of this union accused the Turkish government of having used chemical weapons in Syria against members of the PKK.

And there is more generally the electoral context of June 2023 in which the current government is in a bad position, credited with bad scores in the polls, and of course which may also want to use the security argument to try to muster his own electorate and try to win.

We are a few months away from the presidential elections in Turkey, can we fear an increase in attacks in the country?

We will have to see exactly how light is shed on this attack yesterday, to see if it is indeed something that can be exploited by the government or if, on the contrary, it is an attack that comes from the context immediate.

►Also read: Istanbul attack: the Turkish government announces the arrest of 22 people

Istanbul attack: the PKK behind the attack, "one of the possible leads"

Istanbul attack: the PKK behind the attack, "one of the possible leads"

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest