ANKARA: Five people were killed and 22 others wounded in an attack on a top Turkish defence firm near Ankara that the government said was “very likely” carried out by Kurdish militants.
“The way in which this action was carried out is very probably linked to the PKK,“ Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, referring to the Kurdish militant group which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
He said efforts to identify the perpetrators were ongoing.
Shortly after 3:30 pm, a huge explosion rocked the headquarters of state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) some 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Ankara.
It sent clouds of smoke into the air as the sound of gunfire rang out, Turkish media reported in an incident quickly denounced by Yerlikaya as a “terror attack”.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin, called it a “heinous” attack on Turkey’s defence industry “targeting the survival of our country,“ he said on X.
Yerlikaya earlier said three of the injured were in critical condition and that the two attackers, “a woman and a man”, had been “neutralised”.
There was no immediate claim for the attack but Defence Minister Yasar Guler also pointed the finger at “PKK villains”.
“As they always do, they tried to disturb our nation’s peace through a despicable and dishonourable attack… we will make them suffer for what they have done,“ he said.
Turkey’s vice president Cevdet Yilmaz said four of the victims were TAI employees while the fifth was a taxi driver. Media reports earlier said the assailants had killed him and taken his taxi to carry out the attack.
– World leaders condemn –
An unconfirmed report by private channel NTV said a “group of terrorists” had burst into the building, one of whom “blew himself up” while other outlets reported exchanges of fire for over an hour.
Haberturk TV said there was a “hostage situation”, with another media pundit saying “a number of hostages” had been rescued.
There was no immediate comment from the Turkish authorities who imposed a blackout of live images from the scene.
Sabah newspaper published what it said was a CCTV image from the entrance showing a black-clad young man with a moustache carrying a rucksack and what appeared to be an assault rifle.
As night fell, dozens of ambulances could be seen waiting in convoy near the site, their blue lights flashing.
One of Turkey’s top defence firms and a major arms producer, TAI employs 15,500 people and has a vast production site covering an area of five million square metres, its website says.
The attack drew condemnation from across Turkey and beyond, with Putin offering Erdogan his “condolences in connection with the terror attack” at the start of their meeting.
Statements of condemnation and condolences to the families of the victims were also issued by Brussels, Berlin and the US and French embassies in Turkey as well as by Iran.
The pair met in the Russian city of Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS summit of major emerging market nations which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
NATO chief Mark Rutte also phoned Erdogan to offer support, saying the alliance “stands with Turkiye,“ he wrote on X, using the country’s official Turkish name.
– Dialogue on the horizon? –
The attack came as Turkey’s political establishment appeared to be leaning towards a political, negotiated solution to the decades-long conflict with the Kurdish militants.
The timing was not lost on the main pro-Kurdish party, Dem, the third largest force in parliament, which said it was “noteworthy that the attack took place just as Turkish society was talking about a solution and the possibility of dialogue”.
It took place a day after the head of the far-right MHP, which belongs to Erdogan’s ruling coalition, invited jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to address parliament to announce his movement’s dissolution.
The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, claiming tens of thousands of lives, with Ocalan held in solitary confinement on a prison island since 1999.
The last attack in Turkey was in January when gunmen opened fire inside a Catholic church in Istanbul, leaving one dead in an assault claimed by the Islamic State group.
