Turkey strikes Kurdish militants after deadly attack on defense firm

Turkish police officers secure part of the main road leading to the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) building, after a huge explosion at these headquarters, in Kahramankazan, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Ankara on October 23, 2024. Agence France-Presse

ANKARA — Turkey said it launched strikes on Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria Wednesday after blaming them for an attack that killed five people at a defense firm near Ankara.

A further 22 people were wounded in the attack, which the government said was “very likely” carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Hours later, “an air operation was carried out against terrorist targets in the north of Iraq and Syria,” the defense ministry said in a statement.

READ: Turkey strikes suspected Kurdish militants after suicide attack in Ankara

“A total of 32 targets belonging to the terrorists were successfully destroyed,” it said, adding that operations were continuing.

Listed as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies, the PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. It has a number of rear bases in Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria.

In the attack that sparked the strikes, a huge explosion rocked the headquarters of state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Ankara shortly after 3:30 pm.

READ: Turkey court jails Kurdish leader for 42 years over 2014 unrest

It sent clouds of smoke into the air as the sound of gunfire rang out, Turkish media reported, with the incident quickly denounced by Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya as a “terror attack”.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin, called it a “heinous” attack on Turkey’s defense industry “targeting the survival of our country,” in a message on X.

Attackers ‘neutralized’

Yerlikaya said three of the injured were in critical condition and that the two attackers, “a woman and a man”, had been “neutralized”.

There was no immediate claim for the attack but Yerlikaya said: “The way in which this action was carried out is very probably linked to the PKK.”

He said efforts to identify the perpetrators of the attack were ongoing.

Defense Minister Yasar Guler also pointed the finger at “PKK villains”.

“As they always do, they tried to disturb our nation’s peace through a despicable and dishonorable attack… we will make them suffer for what they have done,” he said.

Turkey’s vice president Cevdet Yilmaz said four of the victims were TAI employees while the fifth was a taxi driver. Media reports earlier said the assailants had killed him and taken his taxi to carry out the attack.

World leaders condemn attack

An unconfirmed report by private channel NTV said a “group of terrorists” had burst into the building, one of whom “blew himself up” while other outlets reported exchanges of fire for more than an hour.

Haberturk TV said there was a “hostage situation”, with another media pundit saying “a number of hostages” had been rescued.

Turkish authorities imposed a blackout of live images from the scene.

Sabah newspaper published what it said was a CCTV image from the entrance showing a black-clad young man with a mustache carrying a rucksack and what appeared to be an assault rifle.

As night fell, dozens of ambulances could be seen waiting in convoy near the site, their blue lights flashing.

One of Turkey’s top defense firms and a major arms producer, TAI employs 15,500 people and has a vast production site covering an area of five million square meters, its website says.

The attack drew condemnation from across Turkey and beyond, with Putin offering Erdogan his “condolences in connection with the terror attack” at the start of their meeting.

Statements of condemnation and condolences to the families of the victims also poured in from Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Tehran and Washington and NATO leadership.

PKK dialogue prospect

The attack came as Turkey’s political establishment appeared to be leaning towards a political, negotiated solution to the decades-long conflict with the Kurdish militants.

The timing was not lost on the main pro-Kurdish party, Dem, the third largest force in parliament, which said it was “noteworthy that the attack took place just as Turkish society was talking about a solution and the possibility of dialogue”.

It took place a day after the head of the far-right MHP, which belongs to Erdogan’s ruling coalition, invited jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to address parliament to announce his movement’s dissolution.

The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, claiming tens of thousands of lives, with Ocalan held in solitary confinement on a prison island since 1999.