HDP bombings suspect linked to DHKP-C, Turkish interior ministry says

The same person left the bombs in the HDP buildings in southern provinces of Adana and Mersin on May 17, a day before they exploded, said the ministry in a statement. 

On May 18, bombs exploded at two local headquarters of the Kurdish problem-focused HDP in Adana and Mersin, weeks before the June 7 general election. Hidden in a cargo parcel and a gift-packaged flower pot, the two bombs injured four people and damaged the buildings.

“The person who committed the attack [on HDP] was arrested in Ankara in 2007 for being involving in an illegal leftist group. He was also detained the same year in Istanbul for links to DHKP-C activities,” said the statement.

“The detailed investigations were started immediately by the police after the explosions [in the HDP buildings]. It was detected that the explosives used in the two incidents were hidden in flower pots,” said the statement. “A male suspect brought the explosives to the party’s two buildings a day before they exploded,” said the statement, praising the detailed work conducted by security forces in identifying the suspect. The suspect moved from the eastern province of Van to Adana in 1990 along with his family, according to the statement. 

The police are still searching for the suspect of the twin bombings. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also told a rally May 21 of the suspect’s link’s to the DHKP-C and slammed claims that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was behind the attacks. 

More casualties were possibly avoided, as party officials in Mersin had suspected that the pot had a hidden wiretapping device before deciding to remove it from the room and put it on the terrace. In Adana, on the other hand, the bomb exploded in the filing cabinet of the party’s provincial head, injuring him and two others.

HDP Mersin Provincial Chair Selman Günbat said the hidden explosive was a “time bomb with fragmentation ammunition.”

“We have some information at hand, but we cannot reveal it now,” Mersin Governor Özdemir Çakacak said May 19, adding that efforts to detain the suspects were continuing.

Adana Governor Mustafa Büyük, meanwhile, said, “Serious distance has been covered in the investigation and the case has already been partly solved.”