Two days after the suicide attack which injured two police officers in Ankara, the Turkish Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya, announced on Tuesday October 3 that he had arrested 67 suspects in sixteen of the country’s 81 provinces.
These people suspected of being linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday, a few hours later.
The Turkish army also claimed Tuesday evening to have struck from the air sixteen PKK positions in northern Iraq, where Turkish Kurdish fighters, in armed struggle against Ankara since 1984, have rear bases. Turkey had already launched retaliatory airstrikes against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan on Sunday evening.
Twenty people arrested Monday
The PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara and the European Union, claimed responsibility for the attack launched on Sunday by two attackers against the Turkish Interior Ministry in Ankara, the capital. One of the two men blew himself up and the other was shot dead before he could enter the ministry compound.
On Monday, twenty people, including local executives of the pro-Kurdish HDP party – accused by the Turkish authorities of being linked to the PKK – were also arrested in Istanbul and in the province of Kirklareli (north-west).