Daily Times

An explosion in a central street in Istanbul’s Taksim area left eight dead and left another 81 in critical condition yesterday. Footage from the scene showed flames erupting and a deafening bang as hundreds of people fled frantically to save their lives. President Erdogan called the attack a “treacherous act,” promising to punish its perpetrators. Some speculate that Turkey could be targeted many more times before election season next year.

Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack just yet, Turkish authorities speculate that the outlawed Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK) may be responsible, specifically accusing the Syrian YPG militia, which Turkey views as an extension of the PKK. The attack has also reignited frictions between Ankara and Washington, which has funded the YPG on numerous occasions, despite Turkish officials warning against it. As of now, Istanbul police have detained 46 people in relation to the attack, including a Syrian woman who confessed to being trained by the PKK and is suspected to have planted the bomb.

Turkey has been locked in a brutal war with the PKK for three decades. Formed in the late-1970s with help from Hafez Assad’s regime, the PKK initiated a terror campaign against the Turkish government. In 1984, the government created its own paramilitary group as a countermeasure against the PKK. Violence against civilians and security forces intensified in the 90s, producing thousands of casualties and massive damage to property.

After Turkey threatened the Syrian government with a ground invasion about its protection of Kurdish militants, the PKK was expelled from Syria and leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured by Turkish special forces in Kenya. Following his trial, Ocalan announced that he would no longer pursue a separatist agenda and called upon his collaborators to declare a unilateral ceasefire. This ceasefire was later abandoned, and the PKK expressed its intention to relaunch its armed campaign against the Turkish state. Flash forward to 2013, Ocalan called upon the PKK to withdraw its terrorists from Turkish territory once more. A renewed PKK terror campaign in 2015 resulted in the deaths of 400 Turkish security officials.

While PKK leaders have abandoned their hopes for a separate nation-state within Turkey, they continue to have a strong-armed presence within the region. Turkey has led three separate incursions against the PKK in Syria but to no avail. It is unlikely that the PKK will ever settle for peaceful relations with the Turkish state, which must continue resisting its efforts to create instability in the region. *