Turkish authorities on Monday said they captured two suspects who allegedly aided and abetted the perpetrator of a PKK terrorist attack in Istanbul two years ago.
The suspects organized the illegal entry of Ahlam Albashir to Türkiye, who planted the bomb that killed six people and injured 99 others on Istanbul’s commercial hub, Istiklal Street, on Nov. 13, 2022.
The suspects also supplied the materials for Albashir, provided a safe house, organized her transport to Istanbul and engaged in other smuggling activities, authorities said.
Türkiye’s cultural and economic hub has been targeted several times by terrorist groups like the PKK and Daesh in the past decade, but the bomb attack was the first in long years during which many attempts had been thwarted.
Authorities captured Albashir hours after the attack, along with at least 59 other suspects charged with aiding and abetting her.
Prosecutors found the bomb attack was ordered and orchestrated by senior leaders of the PKK, including Cemil Bayık, Sabri Ok and Ferhat Abdi Şahin.
Albashir, a Syrian national born in 1999, confessed to infiltrating Türkiye from Syria, where the PKK’s Syrian wing YPG is active. She was accommodated at a “safe house” of the terrorist group in Istanbul before running a reconnaissance mission before the attack.
During the trial, the defendant said she regretted her actions and claimed that she was unaware that a bag she was asked to carry contained explosives. “They (other PKK-linked suspects) asked me to take photos on the street,” she said.
An Istanbul court in April 2024 handed Albashir seven instances of aggravated life imprisonment and another 1,794 years in prison for her role in the terror attack. She had been charged with homicide as well as “disrupting state’s unity and integrity.”
Albashir said she had nothing to say about the charges and accepted any punishment for the explosion and the deceased.
The court also sentenced 14 other defendants accused of aiding and abetting Albashir to prison terms varying between four years to 1,035 years, while 12 defendants were acquitted.
One of the masterminds of the Istiklal attack, Halil Menci, was killed in a pinpoint National Intelligence Organization (MIT) operation in Qamishli in northern Syria on Feb. 22, 2023.
Sources said Menci had been in close contact with other PKK/YPG terrorists and was protected by the terrorist group in the region.
Qamishli is one of the places controlled by the terrorist group. Turkish intelligence personnel have been running surveillance on Menci for a while.
In her questioning, Albashir confirmed entering Türkiye illegally from Afrin and receiving intelligence training from the PKK/YPG.
In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
After the attack, Türkiye launched aerial operations against the terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.
Strikes on the terrorist group have only intensified in the past two years.
The PKK mounted another attack in Ankara in October, as two of its members attempted to raid the headquarters of the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), killing five and injuring 22 others.
The attack struck days after Devlet Bahçeli, the head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), ally to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), made an unprecedented proposal that jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan could be granted parole on the condition that he renounce violence and dissolve the PKK.
Öcalan has been in solitary confinement on a prison island near Istanbul since his capture in Kenya in 1999.
On Sunday, he said he was ready to contribute to a process that could lead the group to surrender its arms.