The attempted terror attack in Ankara on October 1 could not have gone ahead without US approval, Dogu Perincek, chairman of the pro-Erdogan Turkish Patriotic Party, has said.
“We congratulate the Turkish police for their vigilance, sense of duty and heroism. This attack was a complete disappointment and calamity for the terrorists. What was the goal, and who carried out? The PKK could not undertake such an action without the US ‘pressing the button’,” Perincek alleged, as quoted by local media.
“The PKK is being expunged inside the country. There was pressure here. I believe that that pressure comes from the USA,” the politician added, suggesting that Washington may be looking to send Ankara a “message” about its ability to incite terrorism in Turkiye “in connection with some developments in northern Syria,” where the two NATO members remain at odds over American support for Syrian Kurdish militias known as the YPG. Turkiye has accused these fighters of coordinating with the PKK.
Perincek believes the only way to effectively combat terror is to make a clean break with Washington. “This is a foreign policy problem and the problem of meeting Turkiye’s true friends and countries of the world,” the Patriotic Party chairman suggested. That position is in line with the party’s Kemalist, anti-Western, anti-American orientation, and Perincek’s own consistent opposition to the purchase of American weapons, the delivery of Turkish arms to Ukraine, and demands that US bases on Turkish territory be closed.
Ankara Attack
The PKK claimed responsibility for Sunday’s suicide bombing in Ankara. Two police officers were lightly injured, the two perpetrators were killed, and one civilian was murdered by the bombers after they hijacked a light commercial vehicle in the city of Kayseri, central Turkiye on route to Ankara.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the failed attack as the “last gasps of terrorists,” with Ankara subsequently launching a series of airstrikes in northern Iraq, and security forces launching raids across dozens of provinces, with hundreds of people questioned and at least 90 detained on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons or connections to the PKK.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally condemned Sunday’s attack, saying the US. “reject[s] terrorism in all its forms and stand firmly by our NATO ally Turkiye and the Turkish people.”
The PKK and the Turkish government have waged a low-intensity armed conflict since the mid-1980s, with the breakdown of the Turkish-Kurdish peace process, in force from the late 1990s to the mid-2010s, finally collapsing in 2015, prompting Ankara to resume large-scale police actions against the militants. Thousands of security service and militants and over 6,500 civilians have been killed since the 2015 escalation, with up to 500,000 civilians displaced.