Ankara suicide bomber definitely YPG member: Erdoğan

ISTANBUL

DHA photo

The bomber who carried out the Feb. 17 Ankara attack was definitely a member of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed Feb. 19.

“There are three names who played an active role. The perpetrator is the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) and the YPG. We have no doubt about that,” Erdoğan told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul.

Erdoğan also accused Western countries of failing to name the YPG as a “terrorist organization.” 

The Turkish administration has long described the YPG and its political wing, the PYD, as the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

“Why have the PYD and YPG not been declared as terror organizations while the PKK has?” Erdoğan said, adding that he would speak with U.S. President Barack Obama on the matter later in the day.

“The insistence of the West on not understanding us makes us sad,” he said.

He also vowed that Turkey would not permit the creation of a Kurdish corridor in northern Syria that would cut off support to jihadist and other groups fighting the Syrian government.

The president also said the number of detentions could rise following the bomb attack.

“The number of those who were detained could rise, but two names are particularly being investigated. This number, most probably, will rise to three. These three were those who played an active role in the bombing,” Erdoğan told reporters ahead of an official meeting with Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi in Istanbul.