Samples authenticate the identity of Russian bomber in Sultanahmet

Nerdun Hacıoğlu MOSCOW

Russian security forces announced on March 17 the tissue samples taken from Turkey have authenticated the identity of Diana Ramazova, a Russian citizen from the Republic of Dagestan who blew herself up in a suicide bomb attack on the Tourism Police Station in Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district on Jan. 6, killing one policeman.

“When we compared biological samples taken from Turkey to the DNA samples of the suspect’s mother, it was proved that the bomber was identified as 19-year-old Diana Ramazova from Derbent town of the Republic of Dagestan,” said forensic specialists, speaking to Russian news agencies.

According to Turkish and Norwegian intelligence sources, Ramazova and her late husband Abu Aluevitsj Edelbijev, who died in Syria in December 2014, traveled to Syria in July 2014, taking the names “Sümeyra” and “İdris,” respectively, and fought for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Meanwhile, the couple spent three months in Istanbul in 2014. Ramazova entered Turkey from Russia with a tourist visa in May 2014, while no entrance logs for Edelbijev have been found, raising the suspicion that he entered the country illegally. 

Ramazova then allegedly proceeded to blow herself up on Jan. 6 at the Tourism Police Station in Sultanahmet.

Before Ramazova’s identity was revealed by the authorities, the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) claimed responsibility for the attack. However, three days later, the organization withdrew the statement, saying it had made a mistake because it was actively planning its own attack which “coincided with the Sultanahmet incident.”