From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 2 hours ago, updated 32 minutes ago
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A massive explosion occurred in the Turkish capital this Sunday morning. Two police officers were injured and the ministerial district was completely cordoned off.
A loud explosion occurred this Sunday, October 1, in the morning in the heart of the Turkish capital Ankara, a few hours before the opening of the new working session of Parliament, the AFP correspondent reported. According to Turkish media, Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan was scheduled to give a speech during this session. The government spoke of a suicide attack. The private television station NTV reported shots fired after the explosion.
“At around 9:30 a.m. two terrorists appeared on board a light military vehicle. [8h30, heure de Paris, NDLR] “We carried out a bomb attack in front of the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of our Interior Ministry,” the Interior Ministry said. “One of the terrorists blew himself up and the other was neutralized. The ministry announced on X that two of our police officers were slightly injured by the flames of the explosion.
The Ankara Prosecutor General’s Office announced the opening of an investigation and imposed a ban on access to the attack area. The district, where the parliament and numerous ministries are located, was completely sealed off. The attack has not been claimed at this time.
Sweden’s entry into NATO is on the agenda
In this parliamentary year, which begins this Sunday at 2 p.m., Parliament must confirm Sweden’s accession to NATO. Since May 2022, Turkey has kept the Scandinavian country waiting by pleading for its mercy towards “terrorists” and Kurdish movements. President Erdogan takes an ambiguous position, arguing that parliament is sovereign and that only it can decide whether or not to override this veto.
Ankara was the scene of numerous and violent attacks by Kurdish separatists from the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Islamic State group in 2015-2016.
The most recent bomb explosion in March 2016 in the central district of Kilizay killed 38 people and injured 125. The attack was attributed to TAK, a small radical group close to the PKK. In October 2015, 109 people were killed in an attack attributed to IS outside Ankara’s main train station.
The last attack registered on Turkish territory on November 13, 2022 in a shopping street in Istanbul (six dead, 81 injured) was not claimed but attributed by the authorities to the PKK.
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