Turkey terror attack: Explosion outside Turkish aerospace company near Ankara leaves multiple dead, injured

Turkish police officers gather as an armed personnel vehicle drives along a road in Kahramankazan, some 40 km north of Ankara on October 23, 2024, near the gate of the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), after a huge explosion.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Suspected Kurdish militants set off explosives and opened fire Wednesday (October 23, 2024) at Turkiye’s state-run aerospace and defense company TUSAS, killing five people and wounding more than a dozen, the interior minister said.

The two attackers — a man and a woman — also were killed, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said.

Mr. Yerlikaya said the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, is suspected of being behind the attack but cautioned that the process of identifying the assailants continued. Defense Minister Yasar Guler also pointed the finger at the PKK.

“We give these PKK scoundrels the punishment they deserve every time. But they never come to their senses,” Mr. Guler said. “We will pursue them until the last terrorist is eliminated.”

The Islamic State group and leftist extremists have also carried out past attacks in Turkiye.

“I condemn this heinous terrorist attack,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a BRICS meeting in Russia.

Mr. Putin offered condolences. A U.S. Embassy statement said Washington “strongly condemns today’s terrorist attack.”

What is TUSAS?

TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other defense industry and space systems. Its UAVs have been instrumental in Turkiye gaining an upper hand in its fight against Kurdish militants both on its own territory and across the border in Iraq.

The attack occurred a day after the leader of Turkiye’s far-right nationalist party that’s allied with Mr. Erdogan raised the possibility that the PKK’s imprisoned leader could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands his organization.

Abdullah Ocalan’s group has been fighting for autonomy in southeast Turkiye in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people since the 1980s. It is considered a terrorist group by Turkiye and its Western allies.

The country’s pro-Kurdish political party, which also condemned the attack, noted that it had occurred at a time when the possibility of a dialogue to end the conflict had emerged.