Earlier this week, Turkey experienced its deadliest bombing in over five years
when an explosion in Istanbul killed six people and injured at least 81 others.
No group has yet to claim responsibility for the explosion. However, Turkey’s
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu claims that the Kurdish People’s Defense Unit
(YPG) perpetrated the attack.





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Turkish Minister Accuses Kurdish Militia For Deadly Istanbul Bombing, PKK
Denies Involvement



(New York, N.Y.) — Earlier this week, Turkey experienced its deadliest
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bombing in over five years when an explosion in Istanbul killed six people and
injured at least 81 others. No group has yet to claim responsibility for the
explosion. However, Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu claims that the
Kurdish People’s Defense Unit (YPG) perpetrated the attack. The YPG is a wing
of the U.S.- and Turkey-designated terrorist organization theKurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK)
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authorities have since detained 50 people, including Ahlam Albashir, a Syrian
national suspected of being sent to Turkey by the YPG to plant the bomb.
Additional suspects in custody include brothers as Ammar J. and Ahmed J., who
were allegedly tasked with transporting Albashir to Greece after the attack and
driving another suspect to the border with Bulgaria. The PKK has denied any
involvement in the explosion.



To read Counter Extremism Project (CEP)’s resource Turkey: Extremism and
Terrorism, please click here
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The Turkish government classifies the PKK as the most dangerous terror group
inside Turkey. Critics have argued that Turkey’s longstanding issues with the
country’s Kurds, and especially the PKK, have driven Ankara to target the PKK
more heavily than ISIS, despite the latter having killed hundreds in suicide
bombings and mass shootings across Turkey. Nonetheless, the PKK and its
offshoots have claimed responsibility for a spate of high-profile terrorist
attacks, including the deadly March 13, 2016, car bomb attack in Ankara that
killed 37 people and wounded over 125.



To read CEP’s resource Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), please click here
<[link removed]>.



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