2022 Istanbul bombing

During the late 20th and early 21st century, Islamists and Kurdish nationalists carried out many attacks in Istanbul, including a suicide bombing attack in March 2016 in İstiklal Avenue, which killed five people. Islamic State-Turkey conflict The last attack by Islamic State in Turkey was a mass shooting in Ortaköy, Beşiktaş, Istanbul, in 2017, in which 39 people were killed. PKK-Turkey conflict For decades, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has led an insurgency in Turkey, demanding Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey. An estimated 45,000 and 15,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Turkey Erdogan conveyed the November 2015 snap elections, regaining AKP's majority through security concerns. Since the 2016 Turkish coup attempt and the following purges, political discourse, media, public speech as well as academic and judiciary voices are heavily monitored, with nearly no possible opposition to governmental discourse. While the intensity of the PKK-Turkey conflict in Turkey decrease in recent years, As of 2022, Turkey is heading toward its 2023 Turkish general election which is expected to be a major challenge for the AKP party due to economic slowdown and very high inflation. In the past decade, Erdoğan and the AKP government used anti-PKK, security, martial rhetoric and external operations to raise Turkish nationalist votes before elections. In between, security concerns and anti-terrorism laws have been used to repress and neutralize elected oppositions. Opposition HDP elected officials are systematically probed, arrested, dismissed based on tenuous accusations, to then be replaced by pro-government AKP appointees. In April 2022, as Turkey continued Operation Claw-Lock and strikes against PKK and YPG targets, senior Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) commander, Duran Kalkan publicly said: "We will attack everywhere in Turkey. Not only military targets and military positions, but large cities. Areas they don't expect will become war zones" unless Turkey halts its operations. Since May 2022, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government have called for new external ground operations toward autonomous territories in Syria and ramped up attacks on the area. The PKK, SDF, and the YPG have denied any involvement and the AANES accused Turkey with having used such attacks as a pretext for invasions in the past. == Bombing ==

The explosion occurred at 4:13 pm on 13 November 2022, on İstiklal Avenue in Beyoğlu, in the European part of Istanbul. İstiklal Avenue is a popular tourist street and one of the main roads leading to Taksim Square. According to Turkish news portal OdaTV, the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device containing TNT. The blast caused windows to break and images circulating on social media showed people bleeding. The police set up a perimeter around the scene around the bombing site and banned people from going to İstiklal Avenue and Taksim Square. == Victims ==

Six people were killed and at least 81 others were injured by the explosion. The dead were all Turkish citizens: a man and his nine-year-old daughter; a woman and her teenage daughter; and a married couple. Of the 81 treated in hospital, 61 were released. By 15 November, twenty were still being treated in hospital. == Investigation ==

State investigation Istanbul's Chief Public Prosecutors' Office quickly opened an investigation after the attack, and at least eight prosecutors have been assigned to the case. The arrest of the main suspect in the attack, Ahlam Albashir, a female Syrian national, was reported a day after the bombing. Several of her co-workers were also detained and questioned. Two human traffickers who are suspected to have been trying to bring the suspect to Bulgaria were also detained. On 18 November 2022, against seventeen people including the main suspect Ahlam Albashir arrest warrants have been issued. One alleged accomplice of Albashir fled to Azaz, which is a Syrian town controlled by Turkey, where he was captured by the Turkish forces. and that she had been trained by them as a special intelligence officer in Syria, entering Turkey through Afrin District. Abdi called for peace between Turkey and Syrian Kurds, excluding any operation against Turkey in Turkey, and denying responsibility for the bombing. He vowed however to defend Syrian territories under AANES control. Ilhan was interrogated but not detained. He alleged that the PKK was to blame for it and that someone registered a telephone line in his name with a copy of his ID card. Following this, she was threatened repeatedly and preferred to stay at a courthouse instead of returning home. == Aftermath ==

Around an hour after the explosion took place, a broadcast ban was issued by the Istanbul Criminal Court for all visual and audio news and social networking sites related to the incident. Only interviews with government officials are allowed to be reported about. Internet speeds throughout Turkey and access to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube have been significantly decreased since the attack. On 20 November 2022, Turkish Air Force launched a series of airstrikes against Kurdish separatist positions in Northern Syria and Iraq, dubbed Operation Claw-Sword. Despite dubious links, the Istanbul bombing and alleged link to YPG/PKK was used as justification for massive bombing of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and its infrastructures. About 500 targets were hit in Syria and Iraq. On 26 April 2024, Alham Albashir was convicted by a Turkish court and sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences for her role in the bombing. == Internal reactions ==

Government politicians Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the victims were being treated in the hospitals nearby. Erdoğan also said: "The perpetrators would be punished." The Minister of the Interior Süleyman Soylu argued that the attack was carried out by the PKK in retaliation for the Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria and criticized the United States for its support of the Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG) in north-eastern Syria. He had previously blamed the United States for the attack in Mersin in September and had said that the US had funded the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) up to $2 billion since 2019. Opposition Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, inspected the bombing site and called the population not to pay attention to misleading information on the incident. The chairwoman of the Good Party (İYİ) Meral Akşener condemned the attack, stating: "I strongly condemn this vile attack. We would like those responsible to be caught as soon as possible". The Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) expressed its "deep sorrow and grief over the explosion that has killed six of our fellow citizens and injured 81 others", adding that "Our grief and sorrow is great. We wish God's mercy to the citizens who lost their lives". Several football clubs offered their condolences. French writer Patrice Franceschi argues the attack is unlikely to be from Syrian Kurdish forces, who are pragmatically aware of Turkey's superior force and carefully avoid to provoke it and another Turkish operation in Syria. Franceschi argues there are both electoral and ideological motives on the part of AKP government to put the blame on autonomous, socialist, egalitarian AANES, since their social vision and existence is in opposition with autocratic, increasingly Islamist and expansionist nationalism of the AKP government. == International reactions ==

Representatives of many governments condemned the attack and offered their condolences. Condolences were also offered by international organizations such as the European Council, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Organization of Turkic States (OTS). German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his condolences to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the president of Turkey. Steinmeier said, "In this moment of shock, we Germans stand by the citizens of Istanbul and the Turkish people." Steinmeier wrote Sunday, in step with an assertion from his office." German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also said: "My thoughts are with the people who simply wanted to stroll on the Istiklal shopping street on a Sunday and have now become victims of a serious explosion." Baerbock also said, "Our thoughts are with those who were injured, and our deepest condolences go to those who lost loved ones." who repeated the claim that the attack was carried out by the US-supported YPG. The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL argued AKP accusations linking the attack to Syrian YPG is an electoral strategy, using war mongering to distract from deepening economic context and to raise nationalist votes. == See also ==