Bomb attack on Turkish ministers foiled, governor says

Hurriyet.com.tr

Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker (3rd L), Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek (C) and Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu (R) arrive at the construction site in Silvan. DHA photo

Turkish ministers traveling to a groundbreaking ceremony in the country's southeast on May 4 escaped a possible bomb attack, Diyarbakır Governor Mustafa Toprak announced today.

Ministers Mehdi Eker, Cevdet Yılmaz, Mehmet Şimşek and Veysel Eroğlu were in the Silvan district of the southeastern Diyarbakır province on May 4 for the groundbreaking of the Silvan Dam.

Toprak said security forces found 20 kilograms of high-power aluminum-nitrate explosives placed on a road that would be used by ministers going to the dam construction site. Toprak said the explosives were found after they gathered intelligence indicating that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was planning to stage an attack targeting the ministers. "The attack, if successful, would also have derailed the dam construction project," Toprak said.

The PKK's attempts at assassinating the ministers were in vain, as they were ultimately taken to the construction site in helicopters, Toprak said, adding that bomb squads destroyed the explosives on May 5.