Introduction
Attacks in Istiklal, Turkiye, are primarily motivated by hatred against Kurds. This explosion has the odour of an organized attack. Even Turkey’s vice president and news agency reported that it was a terrorist strike. In the previous 24 hours, it nearly claimed 8 to 10 lives. However, because to the busy area, 81 persons suffered serious injuries in the previous hours. According to new investigation, a lady carried out this attack. One of the suspects was in the area shortly after the explosion and was detained by Turkish authorities.
What occurred during the explosion on Istiklal Street (Turkiye)
Many people on the Istiklal street in Turkiye on Sunday at midday could see the sky’s shifting hues and the degraded surroundings.
According to accounts in Turkish media, the explosion happened about 4:20 local time (1330 GMT). A fireball was seen engulfing the busy street as people walked by before turning abruptly and fleeing in fear, according to video that was captured at the time of the explosion and released online.
“Suddenly, an explosion could be heard from 50 to 55 yards distant. I noticed three or four persons lying on the ground. In fear, people started to run. It was quite loud”,CemalDenizci reported the incident to AFP.
Mayor of Istanbul Ali Yerlikaya tweeted that “police, medical, fire, and AFAD [Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency] units were deployed to the location” after the explosion.
Kurdish and Turkish conflict
Who actually are Kurdish people? “The Kurds are one of the indigenous peoples of the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands in what are now south-eastern Turkiye, north-eastern Syria, northern Iraq, north-western Iran and south-western Armenia.Today, they form a distinctive community, united through race, culture and language, even though they have no standard dialect.
They also adhere to a number of different religions and creeds, although the majority are Sunni Muslims.In the early 20th Century, many Kurds began to consider the creation of a homeland – generally referred to as “Kurdistan”. After World War One and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.
What drives the conflict between Turks and Kurds?The majority of the Middle East’s thirty million Kurds reside in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, where they make up around one-fifth of Turkey’s seventy-nine million people. The PKK, founded by Abdullah Ocalan in 1978, has been fighting Turkish authorities since 1984 for more political and cultural rights, principally with the aim of creating an independent Kurdish state. The continuous violence has claimed nearly 40,000 lives.
As evidenced by the protests in Gezi Park in June 2013 and a failed coup attempt in July 2016, popular unrest has progressively intensified under the Erdogan administration. However, tensions have also grown between Turkish authorities and Kurdish organizations.
A portion of northern Syria that is controlled by the Kurds has seen Turkish invasion and occupation in recent years. Additionally, Ankara has regularly imprisoned important Kurdish political activists and banned pro-Kurdish political parties.
The assertion by Ankara that Kurdish militants were responsible for the attack on Sunday comes amid a protracted struggle between Turkish forces and the communist PKK.
Further, Soylu asserted that “the instruction for the strike originated from Kobani,” the Syrian Kurdish border city that gained headlines in 2015 for fending off an assault by IS militants.
Suspect arrested
Suleyman Soylu, Turkiye’s interior minister, announced on Monday that the person responsible for the bombing on Sunday that killed multiple people has been apprehended.
It was reported that Soylu said, He continued, referring to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and indirectly its Syrian offshoot, the Democratic Union Party, by saying, “According to our investigations, the PKK terrorist organization is responsible” (PYD).Turkish authorities report that the attack left at least six people dead and 81 others wounded on Sunday.
The explosion, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was a “vile act.”At a press conference, he said, “It would be incorrect to claim that this is beyond a doubt a terrorist act, but the earliest developments and initial intelligence from my governor is that it smells like terrorism.”
Later, Turkish Vice President FuatOktay stated that he believed the explosion to be a “terrorist strike” perpetrated by a woman.Five prosecutors were tasked to look into the explosion’s cause, according to Anadolu.
At least six people were instantly killed in the explosion two days back but today it has been reached to almost 8 to 10.
On Monday, Istanbul police announced that it had apprehended 46 persons in connection with an attack in the city’s centre, including Ahlam-Albashir, a Syrian woman who is thought to have set the device.
The woman admitted during her initial interrogation that she had received training from Kurdish fighters in Syria and had travelled through the Afrin region of northwest Syria to enter Turkey.
Turkiye turns down the USA’s condolences
Why did Turkey turn down the USA’s condolences? Soylu asserted that “the instruction for the strike originated from Kobani,” the Syrian Kurdish city on the Turkish border that gained notoriety in 2015 for fending off an assault by IS militants.
Despite warnings from Washington, Moscow, and Tehran against such a move, Erdogan has vowed to send Turkish troops into Syria once more to battle the US-backed Kurdish militias.
Soylu blamed the US as well, equating a condolence telegram from the White House to a “killer being the first to come up at a crime scene.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan frequently charges Washington with arming Kurdish forces in northern Syria who Ankara labels “terrorists.”
In the Syrian conflict, the United States has backed the YPG, infuriating Turkey, another NATO member.
Conclusion
According to the suspects and the investigation, the heinous attack in Istiklal, Turkiye, has the whiff of terrorism. And so far, this pointy-stinky arrow points to a Turkish-Kurdish war as the root of the blast.