Major Kurdish city reeling after car bomb
PKK in Turkey claims attack after detention of at least 12 pro-Kurdish lawmakers
ANKARA, TURKEY— A car-bomb attack in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast region killed eight people Friday, hours after authorities detained at least 12 pro-Kurdish legislators for questioning in terror-related probes.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said two police officers, a technician and five civilians died in the attack near a building used by the riot police. Up to 100 people were hurt in the blast but only seven of them remain in hospital, he said.
Yildirim also said one of the assailants was “caught dead” but did not provide details.
The Diyarbakir governor’s office said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed the attack, which the state-run Anadolu Agency said was carried out with a minibus laden with a ton of explosives.
The blast caused a large crater near the police building and damaged several buildings and businesses nearby. Television footage showed people walking among glass and other debris near buildings with windows blown out. Authorities imposed a temporary news blackout after the explosion, barring reports that could lead to public “fear, panic or chaos” and images showing the explosion and its aftermath.
Turkey has been plagued by a series of deadly bomb attacks in the past 18 months, carried out by Kurdish militants or Daesh extremists. The PKK has waged a threedecade-long insurgency against the Turkish state and is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its allies. A fragile ceasefire collapsed in 2015 and at least 700 state security personnel and thousands of Kurdish militants have been killed since then, according to Anadolu.
Hours earlier, police detained 11legislators from the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, or HDP, including the party’s two co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag. Prosecutors demanded the two be formally arrested pending trial.
The detentions occurred in the middle of the night, with co-chair Demirtas describing on Twitter how he was arrested: “Police officials are at the door to my house in Diyarbakir with a detention warrant.” State-run Anadolu Agency reported co-chair Yuksekdag was detained in her home in Ankara. Other senior officials taken away included Sirri Sureyya Onder and Idris Baluken. A twelfth legislator was also detained later during the day. One of the12 was released on condition that he regularly report to authorities.
An Interior Ministry statement said a total of 15 detention warrants were issued by the chief public prosecutors in Diyarbakir and the provinces of Sirnak, Hakkari, Van and Bingol. Two of the legislators were determined to be abroad, and authorities are still searching for one.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, expressed concern over the pro-Kurdish politicians’ detentions on Twitter. She said the EU is in contact with authorities and she has called a meeting of EU ambassadors in Ankara.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party chair Kemal Kilicdaroglu denounced the detentions, “If you defend democracy, then you defend that those who came with elections should go with elections. Otherwise you’ll butcher democracy in Turkey.”