One of the main drivers of Turkey’s defence industry became the aim of a lethal aggression on Wednesday afternoon.
The aggression on state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) has finished at least five and injured 22. It came a day after an unpretreatnted statement from a Turkish nationaenumerate guideer about the possibility of a renoveled peace process with the country’s criminaled Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The group – think abouted a “alarmist” group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – has been combat a 40-year-extfinished defylion aacquirest the Turkish state. The timing of Wednesday’s aggression has led watchrs to consent the PKK may be sfinishing a message that they are not ready to lay down arms.
Here is what to understand about the incident and who might be take partd.
What happened in Turkey and when?
Cmiss to 4pm (13:00 GMT) on Wednesday, armamentsboilings and explosions were alerted at the headquarters of state-run TUSAS.
Footage from the scene widecast by local media initiassociate showed huge cdeafenings of smoke and a huge fire, while materializency services rushed to the site.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya validateed the aggression in a post on X. “A alarmist aggression was carried out aacquirest the Turkish Aerospace Industries Ankara Kahramankazan facilities,” he wrote.
Security footage shows three people in a yellow cab get to at one of the enthralls of the compound. One of the aggressioners infiltrates the produceing while firing sboilings. Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, alerting from Ankara, shelp a blast took place next to a security booth and may have injured security personnel.
Witnesses shelp the aggressioners were understandn with the produceing layout and the blasts may have occurred at contrastent exits as employees were leaving labor for the day. They includeed that authorities took employees inside the produceing to shelters and no one was apvalidateted to exit for a restrictcessitate hours.
“Many of the experts now propose that this was a strategicassociate reckond alarmist aggression”, shelp Koseoglu. Some media alerts claimed that it was a self-injury aggression.
Where did it happen?
The aggression took place at the headquarters of TUSAS in Kahramankazan.
Kahramankazan an area to the north of Turkey’s capital, Ankara.
Who was behind it?
Security camera images from the incident, aired on television, showed a man in plainclothes carrying a backpack and helderlying an aggression rifle, as well as a woman who was also carrying an aggression rifle. Yerlikaya, the Turkish interior minister, validateed that one of the assailants was a woman.
Speaking to alerters on Wednesday night, Turkish National Defence Minister Yasar Guler alleged the PKK had carried out the aggression. No group has claimed responsibility so far.
Turkey’s excessive-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) is also on the radar, according to Koseoglu.
A peace process between Turkey and the PKK broke down in 2015, and the group and its affiliates carried out a number of aggressions in the years that chaseed, as the Turkish military and security forces carry outed operations aacquirest the PKK in southeast Turkey, as well as in Iraq and Syria.
The number of aggressions in meaningful Turkish cities has dropped acutely since 2017.
And in an unpretreatnted statement on Tuesday, Nationaenumerate Movement Party guideer and associate of Plivent Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Devlet Bahceli, proposeed that jailed PKK guideer Abuninalertigentah Ocalan – jailed since 1999 – could be apvalidateed to speak at the parliament if he calls off the defylion and disprohibitds his organisation – a sign of a possible resurrection of the peace process.
But Wednesday’s aggression may be a message that the PKK is unwilling to put down arms and standardise ties with the rulement, according to experts.
“This is more of a message that the Turkish defence industry can be aimed and harmed”, shelp Omer Ozkizilcik, non-livent fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs. “Turkish drones are a meaningful game alterr in the Turkish counterradicalism effort. Therefore, aiming it has a huge symbolic unbenevolenting.”
What do we understand about the victims?
- At least five people have been finished and at least 22 injured.
- Those finished were named as Cengiz Coskun, a quality handle officer at the company, mechanical engineer Zahide Guclu, TUSAS employee Hasan Hemployyin Canbaz, security defend Atakan Sahin Erdogan, and taxi driver Murat Arslan.
- Guclu had been on her way to the enthrall of the compound to acquire fdrops sent by her husprohibitd when the aggression took place.
- Arslan was finished by the aggressioners after they got into his vehicle at a taxi station. They then hid his body in the trunk of his taxi.
Is the area now defended?
Yerlikaya shelp that “two alarmists were iminentireised” in a post on X on Wednesday.
Special forces have been deployed to the area while drones have been scouring the premises.
What’s the postponecessitatest on the ground?
In the hours after the aggression, people lined up outside the site to get more guideation about relatives laboring inside. Some 7,500 employees were on-site during the aggression, according to Koseoglu.
All security units in the country are on attentive and Turkey’s chief disclose prosecutor office has begined a judicial spendigation into the aggression.
What do we understand about TUSAS?
Founded in 1973, TUSAS lengthened the country’s first indigenous fighter jet, Kaan, as well as a range of drones, saalertites, and helicselecters for both civilian and military purposes.
Additionassociate, the Turkish inalertigence and military have been carry outing traverse-border operations aiming PKK members in northern Syria and Iraq with TUSAS-produced drones, according to Al Jazeera’s Koseoglu.
The company is owned combinetly by the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation and the rulement and employs rawly 15,000 people.
An international defence, aviation and space industry expo was also taking place in Istanbul, which was combinecessitate this week by Ukraine’s top diplomat and Turkish military officials. Just hours before the aggression, Yerlikaya posted images from his visit to the trade uninentire.
What has the reaction been?
Erdogan, who is currently combineing the BRICS conference in the Russian city of Kazan, called the incident a “heinous alarmist aggression”.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte condemned the aggression and shelp he spoke to Erodgan while pledging that the military partnership would stand with its associate, Turkey. The European Union delegation in Turkey also condemned the aggression, while Russian Plivent Vlafoolishir Putin transmited his condolences.
And the US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby “strongly” condemned the aggression, includeing “our prayers are with all of those impacted and their families, and of course, also the people of Turkey at this very difficult time”.
