Ankara attack linked to PKK

37 dead and more than 150 injured in several car bombings in Ankara's central district, among whom the fatehr of Galatasaray star Umut Bulut. The attack was deliberately planned to cause as much casualties as possible given timing and place of the attack. According to CNN correspondent Arwa Damon the attack is similar in style to the ISIS attack on a peace rally last year; this time however the attack was carried out not by ISIS, but Kurdish terrorist groups.

As a result of the resurgence of the conflict between the stalinist Kurdish PKK group and Turkish executive forces and the further involvement of Turkey in the Syrian civil war Turkey is believed to become more and more vulnerable to terrorist attacks by both Kurdish terrorist groups and factions and terrorist organizations involved in the Syrian civil war.

A photo of a military intelligence document signed  March 4th indicates  that Turkish intelligence agencies had very specific information about a potential suicide attack to be carried out in Bahcelievler by a "Syrian looking kid" affiliated to or somehow recruited by PKK or one of its sister organisations. Bahcelievler is about 1,5km from the scene of the blast. The US embassy too warned Citizens of an attack to be carried out against government buildings in Ankara. Why no one acted on these suspicions and if these are in fact connected to the Marc 13th attack is unclear at the moment.

As of  March 14th raids were carried out in the Cenral Anatolian province of Ekisehir and Adana and Sanliurfa in the Southeast of Turkey. 20 suspects were detained for links to terrorist organizations and spreading terrorist propaganda. Most detainees were linked to PKK.

The vehicle used in the attack was reportedlly a BMW from the Kurdish-inhabited Varansehir. According to Turkish officials the perpetrator of the attack was a female Kurdish student at Balikesir university, who along with fellow students was currently being charged for spreading PKK propaganda. Sabri Ok, member of the KCK Executive Council, a PKK subgroup, issued a statement the act by com calling the act of "comrade Zinar"  a "historical act that must be owned up to and felt proud of from every perspective."

If the Ankara bombing has indeed been carried out by PKK or an affiliated group it represents the official end of the group's more peaceful strategy adopted in the past century and the beginning of a new, decisively more violent era. Who is responsible for that, remains to be clarified. Abdülkader Selvi of Yeni Safak, a pro-government newspaper said, "Yes, it hurts, but we have to learn to live with terror for a while." Since the hastily convoked security summit of the AKP government is not expected to produce any effective strategies and only a more effective foreign and a more sensible policy towards peaceful Kurds (not PKK that is a terrorist organization and must be combated) could reach that goal it seems that, for now, he may be right.