Ankara bombing is linked to PYD, PKK: Deputy PM
ANKARA – Anadolu Agency
AA photo
The Feb. 17 Ankara bombing was committed by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) together, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş has said, adding that the real identity of the suicide bomber responsible for the assault would become clear after DNA tests.“The person who conducted the terror attack in Ankara entered Turkey from the PYD region and registered with an ID. The action has been revealed as a PYD and PKK linked action in cooperation as a chain,” Kurtulmuş told reporters after a cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace on Feb. 22.
Kurtulmuş also added that the real identity of the suicide bomber would become clear after DNA tests.
“Almost all phases of the incident are obvious in terms of security, adventure and relations. However, we will share the real identity of the suicide bomber with the public as soon as it becomes clear after the DNA tests. It might be a different name but that does not change the reality of the matter,” Kurtulmuş said, vowing to take all measures to prevent such attacks in the future.
Turkey’s government immediately blamed the PYD’s military wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), after the bombing amid a Turkish bombardment of YPG positions in northern Syria. The government also claimed the bomber had been identified as Salih Neccar, but the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) said one of its members, Abdülbaki Sönmez, committed the attack.