Explained: The PKK, the terror group, blamed by Turkey for Istanbul bombing

Istanbul: Turkey on Monday blamed the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for carrying out a bomb attack in Istanbu l that killed six people and wounded more than 80.

The PKK denied any role in Sunday’s bombing and there has been no claim of responsibility.

The group has also been at the heart of a dispute between Sweden and Turkey, which has held up Stockholm’s bid to join NATO, accusing the Nordic country of providing haven to the militant group.

What is the PKK?

The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by the European Union, Turkey and the United States. It has waged a deadly insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

The group, which has Marxist roots, called for an independent state in Turkey’s southeast, which has a Kurdish majority, in a 1978 manifesto. It later rolled back this claim and in recent years has focused on winning greater Kurdish autonomy.

The PKK usually targets Turkish security forces. The PKK-linked Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) usually claims attacks in city centres.

TAK claimed responsibility for the 2016 twin bombings outside an Istanbul stadium and a park which killed 46 people.

The government opened negotiations with the PKK in 2013 to find a solution to the Kurdish question but after the 2015 collapse of a ceasefire, fighting flared again.

The government has targeted Kurdish militants in the wake of an attempted coup in 2016.

What are its ties to the main Kurdish political party?

The Turkish government accuses Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party, the Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP), of links to the PKK. The party denies the claim.

The HDP, which holds 56 seats in parliament, is the second-largest opposition party.

It has come under intense pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP party and its nationalist ally pressing for its shutdown over alleged PKK links.

Turkish prosecutors last year filed a court case demanding the closure of the party.

Authorities have detained HDP mayors in multiple cities since the 2016 coup attempt. Kurdish media outlets have also been shut down and Kurdish journalists arrested.

The party’s former charismatic leader Selahattin Demirtas has been jailed since 2016 on terror-related charges.

Demirtas condemned Sunday’s “terror attack that targeted civilians” via Twitter, from his cell in the northwestern province of Edirne.

Is the Turkish army waging war on PKK?

Turkey’s army regularly carries out operations against the PKK at home and in northern Iraq — a thorn in Ankara’s relations with the government in Baghdad.

Since April, the army has carried out Operation Claw-Lock in northern Iraq in the pursuit of militants.

Last month, media outlets close to the PKK claimed the Turkish army had used chemical weapons in operations in northern Iraq. Ankara has rejected the claims. Defence Minister Hulusi Akar has said the army has no chemicals in its arsenal.

The head of Turkey’s doctors’ union, Sebnem Korur Fincanci, has been arrested after calling for the claims to be investigated.

On 2 November, PKK commander Murat Karayilan accused the Turkish state of using chemical weapons to “break the resistance” of Kurdish militants, in an interview with Firat news agency and vowed revenge.

Syria links?

Police arrested more than 40 people after Sunday’s attack, including a Syrian woman accused of planting the bomb.

According to police, she confessed to acting on the orders of Kurdish militants and infiltrated Turkey from northern Syria.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched a string of offensives in Syria targeting Kurdish militias as well as Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.

Erdogan has vowed never to allow a “terror corridor” along Turkish borders. Since May, he has threatened to launch a new operation into northern Syria.

On Monday, Turkey rejected Washington’s message of condolences as it often accuses Washington of arming Kurdish militia in Syria known as the YPG.

Washington relied heavily on the YPG to defeat IS jihadists who overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014.

Why do Turks worry?

The bombing, seven months before a presidential election in June, has stoked fears in Turkish society rattled by a string of attacks in 2015-16.

The same street was targeted in 2016, killing five people.

Abdulkadir Selvi, a pro-government columnist in daily Hurriyet, suggested the PKK “aims to add weight to the elections” as they have in the past.

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