Ankara // A radical Kurdish group with ties to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Thursday claimed responsibility for the suicide car bomb attack that killed 35 people in Ankara last weekend.
The claim by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) came as Germany closed diplomatic missions and schools in Turkey on Thursday after Berlin received information that they could be targeted.
The TAK the female bomber as Seher Cagla Demir, who had been involved since 2013 in a “radical fight against a policy of massacre and denial against the Kurdish people”.
“On the evening of March 13, a suicide attack was carried out ... in Ankara, the heart of the fascist Turkish republic. We claim this attack targeting centres ... where decisions to massacre Kurdish people are made,” the group said on its website.
The bomb ripped through a busy transport hub of Ankara which is close to the interior and justice ministries, prime minister’s office, parliament and foreign embassies.
The group said it was a response to security operations by Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated south-east of the country.
“This action was carried out to avenge the 300 Kurds killed in Cizre as well as our civilians who were wounded,” the statement said.
“We would like to apologise for the civilian losses which had nothing to do with the dirty war being waged by the fascist Turkish republic,” the group added.
In February, Turkish forces ended an almost two-month military offensive backed by a curfew against Kurdish rebels in the southeastern town of Cizre.
Turkey has suffered five major bombings since July last year, killing more than 200 people, including two in Ankara in less than a month.
Foreign missions in the capital have heightened security measures.
The German embassy in Ankara as well as the Istanbul consulate and German schools were closed on Thursday for security reasons.
“There were indications that we took very seriously that attacks against our diplomatic representations in Turkey were planned,” German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Berlin.
The minister said it was a “necessary measure” to protect German citizens and also to use the time to bolster security at the institutions.
Last January, 12 German tourists were killed in a suicide attack blamed on ISIL in the heart of Istanbul’s tourist district.
Turkey, which faces multiple security threats, is battling both ISIL and Kurdish militants.
* Agence France-Presse
