6 Killed, Many Injured After Blast At Busy Street In Turkey's Istanbul

[MenInG]

Istanbul: A strong explosion of unknown origin shook the busy shopping street of Istiklal in Istanbul on Sunday, leaving six people dead and wounding dozens more, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said while condemning the "vile attack". He also said initial signs point to 'terror' attack.

"The relevant units of our state are working to find the perpetrators... behind this vile attack," Erdogan told a televised press conference.

Police cordoned off the area, where crowds were dense on Sunday afternoon, and helicopters were flying over the city centre as sirens were sounding.

"I was 50-55 metres (yards) away, suddenly there was the noise of an explosion. I saw three or four people on the ground," witness Cemal Denizci, 57, told AFP.

"People were running in panic. The noise was huge. There was black smoke. The noise was so strong, almost deafening," he said.

Parents swept their children up into their arms as they fled the area.

Authorities have given no indication of what caused the explosion.

According to an AFP video journalist on the scene, the police have established a large security cordon to prevent access to the damaged area for fear of a second explosion.

A massive deployment of security forces equally barred all entrances, while a heavy deployment of rescue workers and police were visible.

The explosion occurred shortly after 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) in the famous Istiklal shopping street which is popular with locals and tourists.

According to images posted on social media at the time of the explosion, it was accompanied by flames and immediately triggered panic, with people running in all directions.

A large black crater was also visible in those images, as well as several bodies lying on the ground nearby.

Istiklal Street had already been hit in the past during a campaign of attacks in 2015-2016 that targeted Istanbul.

Claimed by the Islamic State group, those attacks killed nearly 500 people and injured more than 2,000.

NDTV

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I have learnt with deep anguish about the explosion at popular Istiklal avenue in the heart of Istanbul. Govt & people of Pakistan express deepest condolences to the brotherly people of Turkiye at the loss of precious lives & send prayers for the speedy recovery of the injured.</p>— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) <a href="https://twitter.com/CMShehbaz/status/1591807508343132161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[sweep_shot]

Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun.

I hope it was not deliberate.

 

[SalimBhai]

It’s a bomb. Has to be deliberate

 

[KingKhanWC]

Tragic, Istanbul is a beautiful City, lets pray its not riddled with terrorism now.

Its obvious who is behind this, since Turkeys support for Russia.

 

[The_KING]

So sad. I was in Istanbul with my family for a holiday at the start of the year. It is a beautiful city.

I hope and pray for the victims and their families.

 

[SalimBhai]

Well who is behind this? Please tell

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Well who is behind this? Please tell

Those who will be gladdened by Turkey's demise.

 

[SalimBhai]

Yes yes. But who

 

[SpiritOf1903]

PKK probably

 

[SalimBhai]

Maybe. Uncle erdogan has been bombing the Kurds for years. Anyway I am against these bombers even. Hope they catch the culprits.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

PKK probably

Sponsored by...I wonder who?

 

[sweep_shot]

PKK probably

Yes. It is likely.

Erdogan should go after PKK hard (if it is proven PKK did it).

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Yes. It is likely.

Erdogan should go after PKK hard (if it is proven PKK did it).

He should be very careful before he makes that move. Could turn out like Russia trying to bring Ukraine back into the USSR.

 

[sweep_shot]

He should be very careful before he makes that move. Could turn out like Russia trying to bring Ukraine back into the USSR.

PKK operates within Turkish border. So, Erdogan can target them more. It is a bit different than Russia doing operation in Ukraine.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

PKK operates within Turkish border. So, Erdogan can target them more. It is a bit different than Russia doing operation in Ukraine.

Erdogan is not liked in the west for whatever reason. He needs to tread carefully, and I'm sure he knows this.

 

[SpiritOf1903]

PKK are terrorists.

 

[PakLFC]

Turkey has many enemies. Could Saudi be behind it?

 

[SalimBhai]

Turkey has many enemies within also. They treat the Kurds, the local Armenians , the Syrian refugees like crap within turkey. So could also be local.

 

[MenInG]

At least six people have been killed and 81 wounded in an explosion in a busy area of central Istanbul, Turkish authorities have said.

The blast happened at about 16:20 local time (13:20 GMT) on Sunday on a shopping street in the Taksim Square area.

A suspect has now been arrested, the interior minister said.

Vice-President Fuat Oktay earlier said the blast was thought to be a terrorist attack carried out by a woman.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the perpetrators would be punished.

Speaking at a news conference in Istanbul, he condemned what he called the "vile attack" and said "the smell of terror" was in the air.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told Turkish media a woman had sat on a bench in the area for more than 40 minutes, leaving just minutes before the blast took place.

On Monday morning, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said a person suspected of having left the bomb had been arrested by police, and accused the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of responsibility.

The PKK is a militant group which calls for an independent Kurdish state within Turkey. The EU and the US regard it as a terrorist organisation.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.

Government minister Derya Yanik wrote in a tweet that a government ministry employee and his young daughter were among the victims.

BBC correspondent Orla Guerin, who is in the area, said there was a heavy police presence around Istiklal Street, which had been cordoned off. Helicopters were circling overhead as ambulances went back and forth.

Many shopkeepers standing in their doorways on the normally bustling street looked stunned, she said, adding that the incident will have come as a shock to many in the city.

Hayat, who was in an internet café on Istiklal Street when the blast took place, said there was turmoil following the explosion.

"I saw people running around and wounded people were passing by the internet café towards hospital," she said. "It was a frenzy."

Another eyewitness, Cemal Denizci, was about 50m (54 yards) from where the blast took place when it happened. "There was black smoke. The noise was so strong, almost deafening," he told AFP.

20-year-old Eyup told the BBC "there is fear" among residents of Istanbul following the attack, adding that more people may choose to stay away from crowded areas like Taksim.

In the wake of the attack, condolences to Turkey have poured in from around the world.

The US said it stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" with its Nato ally in "countering terrorism," according to a statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a tweet in Turkish: "We share your pain... We are with you in the fight against terrorism."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, also writing in a tweet in Turkish, said: "The pain of the friendly Turkish people is our pain."

Countries including Pakistan, Italy and Greece also expressed their solidarity.

Istiklal street - one of the city's main arteries which is usually packed with shoppers - was previously targeted by a suicide bomber in 2016.

BBC

 

[shortbread]

Erdogan needs a scapegoat/distraction from his self engineered economic mess!

 

[daytrader]

Turkey accuses Kurdish PKK over Istanbul bomb attack

Turkey’s interior minister accused the Kurdistan’s Workers’ Party (PKK) of responsibility for a bombing in a busy Istanbul shopping thoroughfare that killed six people and said on Monday a suspect has been arrested.

The explosion tore through Istiklal Street, a popular shopping destination for locals and tourists, on Sunday afternoon, wounding dozens.

A suspect was arrested by the early hours of Monday.

“The person who planted the bomb has been arrested,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said in a statement broadcast by the official Anadolu news agency.

“According to our findings, the PKK terrorist organisation is responsible,” he said.

The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara as well as its Western allies, has kept up a deadly insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s.

Regularly targeted by Turkish military operations, the group is also at the heart of a tussle between Sweden and Turkey, which has been blocking Stockholm’s entry into Nato since May, accusing it of leniency towards the PKK.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the “vile attack” on Istiklal.

“It might be wrong if we say for sure that this is terror but according to first signs … there is a smell of terror there,” Erdogan told a news conference on Sunday.

Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay said, “We believe that it is a terrorist act carried out by an attacker, whom we consider to be a woman, exploding the bomb”.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said: “A woman had been sitting on one of the benches for more than 40 minutes and then she got up”.

“One or two minutes later, an explosion occurred,” he told A Haber television.

“There are two possibilities,” he said. “There’s either a mechanism placed in this bag and it explodes, or someone remotely explodes (it).”

“All data on this woman are currently under scrutiny,” he said.

Soylu’s announcement did not add any details about the woman.

Turkish cities have been struck by militants and other groups in the past.

Istiklal Street was hit during a campaign of attacks in 2015-2016 that targeted Istanbul and other cities, including Ankara.

Those bombings were mostly blamed on the militant Islamic State group and outlawed Kurdish militants, and killed nearly 500 people and wounded more than 2,000.

Sunday’s explosion occurred shortly after 4:00pm (1300 GMT) in the famous shopping street.

Helicopters flew over the city centre after the attack. Police established a large security cordon to prevent access to the area for fear of a second explosion.

Images posted on social media showed the explosion was followed by flames and immediately triggered panic, with people running in all directions.

Several bodies were seen lying on the ground nearby.

“I was 50-55 metres away, suddenly there was the noise of an explosion. I saw three or four people on the ground,” witness Cemal Denizci, 57, told AFP.

“People were running in panic. The noise was huge. There was black smoke,” he said.

Istiklal, in the historic district of Beyoglu, is one of the most famous arteries of Istanbul. It is entirely pedestrianised for 1.4 kilometres, or about a mile.

Criss-crossed by an old tramway and lined with shops and restaurants, it attracts large crowds at the weekend.

Many stores closed early in the neighbouring district of Galata, while some passers-by, who came running from the site of the explosion, had tears in their eyes.

A massive deployment of security forces barred all entrances and rescue workers and police could be seen.

Turkey’s radio and television watchdog, RTUK, placed a ban on broadcasters showing footage of the blast, a measure previously taken in the aftermath of extremist attacks.

Access to social media was also restricted after the attack.

DAWN

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Turkey has many enemies. Could Saudi be behind it?

Jurassic park troll exposed yet again.

 

[Suleiman]

Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Raji’oon.

 

[SalimBhai]

News coming out is that he did this himself to distract it from the terrible state of the economy. He did fake the coup years ago. So this is not beneath him. Let’s see

 

[PakLFC]

Jurassic park troll exposed yet again.

Why can Saudi's not be behind it?

 

[ex-q-zit]

'Payback': Turkey launches Syria air strikes to avenge Istanbul bombing

The Turkish defence ministry posted the message “Payback!” alongside a photo of a jet shortly after the air strikes targeted Kurdish militias.

The fresh operation risked raising tensions with the US, a Nato ally, which relied heavily on Kurdish support to defeat Isis and secure lawless parts of Syria.

Washington has repeatedly warned Ankara against campaigns in Iraq and Syria.

The explosion last Sunday in a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul killed six people and injured more than 80. While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, Ankara quickly blamed it on the PKK, a banned Kurdish group.

The Turkish defence ministry said that they had destroyed 89 targets, including shelters, tunnels and ammunition depots, citing their right to self-defence as the reason behind launching Operation Claw-Sword. Some of the targets were members of Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), what Ankara believes is the Syrian affiliate of the PKK.

While both Washington and Anakara have designated the PKK as a terrorist organisation, their views differ when it comes to the YPG who made up a large component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the umbrella group of predominantly Kurdish local allies that were fundamental to the US-led fight to defeat Isis.

MSN

 

[shortbread]

News coming out is that he did this himself to distract it from the terrible state of the economy. He did fake the coup years ago. So this is not beneath him. Let’s see

Erdogan needs to plan his succession and find someone suitable who can take on his vision for Turkey. He's clinching on straws to stay in power. All this anti- Kurd distraction is only creating more instability in an already crumbling economy and bleeding the exchequer even more.

 

[SalimBhai]

Erdogan needs to plan his succession and find someone suitable who can take on his vision for Turkey. He's clinching on straws to stay in power. All this anti- Kurd distraction is only creating more instability in an already crumbling economy and bleeding the exchequer even more.

Dictators don’t have successors

 

[ex-q-zit]

Sweden extradites man with alleged terrorism links to Turkey, media report

ANKARA, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Sweden on Friday extradited a Kurdish man with alleged links to terrorism to Turkey as Ankara keeps up pressure on the Nordic country to meet its demands in return for NATO membership, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported on Saturday.

Mahmut Tat had sought asylum in Sweden in 2015 after being sentenced in Turkey for six years and 10 months for alleged links to the Kurdish militant group the PKK.

Turkish state television TRT said Tat was sent to an Istanbul prison on Saturday. Swedish authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Sweden and Finland applied in May to join NATO in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but ran into objections from Turkey, which accused the two countries of harbouring militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and other groups.

Turkey said on Wednesday that Sweden and Finland had made progress towards NATO membership but that they still needed to do more to satisfy Ankara's demands on tackling terrorism.

Others wanted by Ankara are people with alleged links to Fethullah Gulen - a Turkish cleric who lives in the United States and is accused of orchestrating 2016 failed coup attempt against Erdogan.

Stockholm and Helsinki deny harbouring militants but have pledged to cooperate with Ankara to fully address its security concerns and also to lift arms embargoes.

NATO makes its decisions by consensus, meaning that both countries require the approval of all 30 countries. Only Turkey still stands opposed to the two countries' membership.

Reuters

 

[daytrader]

Sweden says cannot fulfil Turkey’s demands for NATO application
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson says Turkey is asking for too much, but he is confident Ankara will approve its bid for NATO.

Sweden is confident that Turkey will approve its application to join the NATO military alliance, but it will not meet all the conditions that Ankara has set for its support, Sweden’s prime minister has said.

“Turkey both confirms that we have done what we said we would do, but they also say that they want things that we cannot or do not want to give them,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Sunday during a security conference.

Finland and Sweden signed a three-way agreement with Turkey in 2022 aimed at overcoming Ankara’s objections to their membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

...
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/8/sweden-cannot-fulfil-turkeys-demands-for-nato-application-pm