Ankara:
A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in the center of the Turkish capital Ankara on Sunday, while a second attacker engaged in a shootout with police hours before the Turkish Parliament reopened with an address after a three-month summer recess. Was killed. By President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said two police officers were slightly injured during the attack near the entrance of his ministry. Yerlikaya said on the social media platform X that the attackers had arrived at the scene in a light commercial vehicle.
Yerlikaya later told reporters, “Our heroic police officers, through their intuition, confronted the terrorists as soon as they exited the vehicle.” “One of them blew himself up while the other was shot in the head before he had a chance to blow himself up.”
The powerful explosion outside the Interior Ministry, followed by large flames, was heard several kilometers away from the site of the attack. The targeted area is home to several other ministries and the Turkish parliament, which reopened as planned with Erdogan’s address at noon.
However, the Turkish president went ahead with his scheduled speech, warning that “terrorists” would never succeed in their goal. “The villains who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their objectives and never will,” Erdogan told parliament.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies and has been waging a deadly insurgency against Ankara for four decades, claimed responsibility for the blast, calling it “a sacrificial act “Against the Turkish Interior Ministry”.
Two attackers arrived in a commercial vehicle at 9:30 am (local time) in front of the entrance of the General Directorate of Security of our Interior Ministry and carried out an incident, Yerlikaya said in a press statement outside the ministry. bomb attack”
He further said, “One of the terrorists blew himself up. The other was shot in the head and killed before he had a chance to blow himself up. Two of our police officers were slightly injured in the firing, but their lives were not in danger.
State-run Anadolu Agency said two attackers had seized the vehicle from a veterinarian in the central province of Kayseri, about 300 kilometers away. They shot the man in the head and threw his body into a ditch, Daily Sabah reported. After this he went to Ankara.
Meanwhile, police and others took cover, as Ankara police headquarters said it was conducting “controlled explosions” of “suspicious packages” to prevent other explosions, according to an announcement on Twitter, which was first shared on Twitter. Was known by name.
The blasts follow a November 2022 bomb attack on an Istanbul shopping street that killed six people and injured 81. The Ankara prosecutor’s office said Sunday it was opening an investigation. It banned entry to the area and asked the media to stop broadcasting photographs of the scene.
Erdogan later opened the parliamentary session by criticizing his country’s long wait to join the EU, saying Turkey “no longer expects anything from the EU, which has kept us at its doors for 40 years.” But made to wait”.
The current session of the Turkish parliament must also ratify Sweden’s entry into the NATO alliance. In July Hungary and Turkey lifted their vetoes against Sweden’s entry into the Atlantic alliance, but were slow to ratify its membership.
Pakistan strongly condemned the cowardly terrorist attack and expressed full solidarity with Turkey in the fight against the scourge of terrorism. In a statement, the Foreign Office spokesperson confirmed that Pakistan stands firmly with Turkiye in addressing this challenge.
Separately, in a press release shared by the Prime Minister’s Office media wing, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar expressed the sympathies of the Pakistani nation towards the people of brotherly country Turkiye. He also prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.
Also, on his X handle, Kakar said: “We stand in full solidarity with our Turkish brothers and sisters in the fight against the scourge of terrorism. I have no doubt that under the dynamic leadership of my brother (President Erdogan), the resolute Turkish nation will emerge from this challenge even stronger.
“The Parliament and citizens of Pakistan stand in solidarity with the Turkish Parliament and its people in this difficult time,” National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf said in a statement. He said that the attack outside the Turkish Parliament was basically an attack on freedom and democracy.
He said the attack outside the Turkish Parliament was a heinous attempt to damage peace in the region and the Parliament of Pakistan strongly condemns it. He further said, Turkey’s Parliament and its people have shown resilience against these extremist elements.
Ashraf pointed out that the people and security forces of Pakistan have been at the forefront of the fight against terrorism, hence he stressed the importance of adopting a collective approach to end terrorism.
