Turkish version of Istanbul blast seems “fragile”
ERBIL, KRI, Iraq (North Press) – Over the past week, the Istanbul explosion has caused wide spread debate in Turkey and abroad. On November 19, Ankara used the explosion to carry out airstrikes against several areas in northeast Syria.
Ankara has accused Kurdish parties to lie behind the explosion. However, while the Kurdish parties denied any involvement in the explosion, Turkish air force launched a week later intense airstrikes against northeast Syria with Kobani having the lion’s share in those attacks.
Farhad Shami, head of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Media Center, said on November 19, “The city [Kobani] that defeated ISIS is subjected to bombardment by the aircraft of the Turkish occupation.”
Following the explosion that hit Taksim Square at the heart of Istanbul in which six persons were killed and 80 others were injured, Turkish authorities had a version claiming that a Syrian woman called Ahlam al-Bashir a suspected to have carried out the attack entered the country with another person four months prior.
The Turkish authorities claim the Syrian woman is affiliated with the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and trained and received instructions from Kobani adding that she entered the country via Afrin that has been under the control of the Turkish forces and the Syrian opposition factions, known as Syrian National Army (SNA), since 2018 following the so-called “Operation Olive Branch.”
All parties accused by the Turkish authorities have denied involvement in the blast.
However, Ankara has always harbored grudging against the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) to give itself the pretext to carry out a military incursion into northeast Syria as the country prepares to hold elections in the coming summer.
Regarding recent outcomes of the blast, the Turkish authorities revealed a statement by the Bulgarian judiciary authorities claiming it has captured five suspects in connection with the blast, one of them from Arabic descent and four from Moldova.
While Bulgaria did not give any details regarding Turkish claims on the background of the attack. It said the operation was run by counter-terrorism units in the capital Sofia.
Opinions
Kurdish Writer and political analyst Khorshid Delli said the fragility of the Turkish version [of the Istanbul blast] “starts from the arrival of the woman arrested in Turkey from the city of Kobani then Afrin and ending up in Istanbul.”
“The area from where the woman left Kobani as it [Turkey] claims is under its control, the whole area is run by Turkish security checkpoints including Afrin from where Turkish Minister for Interior said the woman entered Turkish territories,” Delli added.
“The Woman does not seem to be Syrian, her complexion has nothing to do with those of the Kurds; this refutes the Turkish version,” he noted.
The Kurdish politician wondered, “How a woman with makeup could carry out an operation, and return home to be simply arrested with no resistance?”
Elections
The incident paves the way for the Turkish president to use it in the upcoming presidential elections. There are two beneficiary parties in this relation; the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) led by Devlet Bahceli which is the main ally of Justice and Development Party (AKP), according to the analyst.
Delli believed that MHP has already comprehended that “it is going to lose the election is case Erdogan seeks the support of the Kurds through Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).”
Earlier, Erdogan sent a high-profile delegation to negotiate with HDP in the relation.
The Kurdish analyst said, “MHP has influence within security bodies which makes it likely to be behind the explosion to forbid any rapprochement between AKP and HDP.”
The rare explosion in Istanbul created wide-scale debate; some have said it is merely a play while others argue it could be employed as a device to draw the policy in the country amid approaching “difficult” elections in 2023.
Delli believed the issue could be exploited by AKP in order to give legitimacy to its long-awaited operation in Syria and to put pressure on Syrian refugees since the issue is a fertile one to be invested in the coming elections in addition to the distraction of the economic crisis the country is going through.
This comes as opinions and questionnaires signify the popularity the party enjoyed in the past is on the wane.
US warning
Regarding the warning issued by the US General Consulate in Erbil, Delli said, “There is confusion in the sources of the US policy as some sources have averted the responsibility of the statement dubbing it an exaggeration.”
On November 18, the US General Consulate in Erbil issued a security warning to its citizens against travelling to northern Syria and Iraq owing to an imminent Turkish offensive in the region.
He considered that a trend in the US administration tends to the Turkish operations in Syria, for this reason such a warning could come within the mutual interests of both Turkey and those trends.
“Generally, the US foreign policy contradicts this orientation as the US troops remain in the area and any operation could make the two parties collide,” Delli noted.
Global Mafias
Iraqi researcher and political historian Jawad al-Baydani said, “[Kurdistan] Worker’ Party has no connection to what happened in Istanbul. Had it been the party, it would have claimed responsibility and repeated such operations more widely. The party has always evaded targeting civilian gatherings, this is not a secret.”
“However, Turkish authorities also have no interest in such an operation since the country passes through a period of stability and appeases the world that its policy heads towards a Western-oriented one,” al-Baydani told North Press.
According to al-Baydani, Turkey seeks to end the isolation it feels over the past years, “This means it has no interest to undergo a state of instability at home.”
The Iraqi researcher believed, “Global mafias stand behind such a kind of incident.”
What substantiates the involvement of international parties in the explosion, according to al-Baydani, is the existence of suspects on Moldavian soil as the Bulgarian authorities announced on Saturday in a country where Israeli intelligence is known to be widely operative.
All in all, what has happened serves the interest of organizing international policies and leading governments according to major economic gains in the favor of companies monopolizing international policies, according to the Iraqi researcher.