Suspected murderer Istanbul: that’s why Ankara’s story is not decisive Hard fight for the House of Representatives: (Democrat) sensation is possible, but difficult

Ahlam Albashir is the name of the woman who caused a lot of mystery after the attack in Istanbul. Turkish anti-terror police arrested Albashir in a suburb of the metropolis on Monday evening after they allegedly planted the bomb that killed a nine-year-old child on Istiklal boulevard in the city center on Sunday. .

The Syrian Albashir is a member of the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG, an offshoot of the Workers’ Party PKK, the Turkish government says. Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu blames the US for the violence because America is cooperating with the YPG in Syria. But Soylu’s version raises questions. Critics of the Turkish government suspect that Ankara is pursuing political goals in the ongoing dispute with the West by assigning blame.

After an initial questioning of Albashir, Istanbul police said the alleged perpetrator had described himself as a member of a YPG secret service. According to her own statements, she entered Turkey illegally through the Turkish-occupied Syrian city of Afrin and the Syrian rebel province of Idlib to carry out the attack.

Interior Minister Soylu said the order for the attack came from the northern Syrian city of Kobani, which is controlled by the YPG. PKK and YPG said they had nothing to do with the attack.

Accusations against the US and Europe

Soylu, the leading nationalist hardliner in the Turkish cabinet, combined his comments about the attack with accusations against the US and Europe. With his condolences after the act of violence, America looks like “a murderer who is one of the first to show up at the crime scene,” according to the minister. He rejected the statement of condolence from the US embassy in Ankara.

Europe was also the target of Turkish government politicians. Erdogan’s communications chief Fahrettin Altun wrote on Twitter that terrorist attacks in Turkey were “direct and indirect consequences of some countries’ support of terrorist groups”. Ankara accuses NATO candidate Sweden, as well as Germany and other European countries, of supporting the PKK and the YPG.

The Turkish army occupies several areas in northern Syria to drive the YPG out of the border area. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened another intervention in May. The Istanbul attack can now be used to justify the new attack, US Middle East expert Seth Frantzman wrote on Twitter. He doubted the accuracy of the entire report of the incident:

The Turkish government’s account is actually not entirely conclusive. So far, the YPG has never carried out attacks in Istanbul – the main interest of the Syrian Kurdish militia is to avoid another Turkish intervention on their territory in Syria. A bomb attack in Istanbul would contradict this interest. The PKK, weakened by Turkish army offensives, has not launched an attack in Istanbul for years.

Frantzman wrote that he found it suspicious that all parts of the investigation fit together “like clockwork” and that the Turkish authorities declared the case solved within hours. (aargauerzeitung.ch)