Two injured in blast, gunfire near Turkey parliament

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device in the heart of the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Sunday, while a second assailant was killed in a shootout with police, hours before Turkiye Parliament was set to reopen after its three-month summer recess with an address by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said two police officers were slightly injured during the attack near an entrance to his ministry. Yerlikaya said on social media platform X that the assailants had arrived at the scene in a light commercial vehicle.

“Our heroic police officers, through their intuition, resisted the terrorists as soon as they got out of the vehicle,” Yerlikaya later told reporters. “One of them blew himself up while the other one was shot in the head before he had a chance to blow himself up.”

The powerful explosion outside the interior ministry, which was followed by large flames, was heard several kilometres from the site of the attack. The targeted area is home to several other ministries and the Turkish parliament, which reopened as planned in the afternoon with an address from Erdogan.

The Turkiye president, however, went ahead with his scheduled speech, warning that that “terrorists” would never achieve their aims. “The villains who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their objectives and will never achieve them,” Erdogan told the parliament.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkiye and its Western allies that has been waging a deadly insurgency against Ankara for four decades, claimed responsibility for the blast, saying that “a sacrificial action was carried out against the Turkish Interior Ministry”.

Yerlikaya said in a press statement outside the ministry that two attackers arrived in a commercial vehicle around 9:30 am (local time) in front of “the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of our Ministry of the Interior, and carried out a bomb attack”.

He added: “One of the terrorists blew himself up. The other was killed by a bullet to the head before he had a chance to blow himself up. Two of our police officers were lightly injured in the exchange of fire, but their lives were not in danger.”

The State-run Anadolu Agency reported that the two attackers had seized the vehicle from a veterinarian in the central province of Kayseri , roughly 300 kilometres away. The daily Sabah reported that they shot the man in the head and threw his body into a ditch. They then drove to Ankara.

Meanwhile, police and others took cover, as the Ankara police headquarters said that it was carrying out “controlled explosions” of “suspicious packages” to prevent other explosions, according to an announcement on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The blasts followed a bomb attack in a shopping street in Istanbul in November 2022, where six were killed and 81 were injured. The Ankara prosecutor’s office said on Sunday it was opening an investigation. It banned access to the area and asked the media to stop airing images from the scene.

Erdogan later opened the parliamentary session by slamming his country’s long wait for accession to the EU, stating that Turkey “no longer expects anything from the European Union, which has kept us waiting at its door for 40 years”.

The current session of Turkey’s parliament must also validate Sweden’s entry into the NATO alliance. Hungary and Turkey in July lifted their vetoes against Sweden’s entry into the Atlantic alliance, but have been slow to ratify its membership.

Pakistan strongly condemned the dastardly terrorist attack and expressed complete solidarity with Turkiye in the fight against the scourge of terrorism. In a statement, the Foreign Office spokesperson reaffirmed that Pakistan resolutely stood with Turkiye in overcoming this challenge.

Separately, in a press release shared by Prime Minister’s Office Media Wing, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar extended sympathies of the Pakistani nation to the people of brotherly country Turkiye. He also prayed for the early recovery of the injured.

Also, on his X handle, Kakar said: “We stand in complete solidarity with our Turkish brothers and sisters in the fight against the scourge of terrorism. I have no doubt that under the dynamic leadership of my brother (President Erdogan), the resolute Turkish nation will emerge ever stronger from this challenge.”

National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf said in a statement: “Pakistan’s parliament and citizens stand in solidarity with Turkiye’s parliament and its people during this difficult time.” he added that the attack outside Turkiye’s parliament was essentially an assault on freedom and democracy.

He added that the attack outside Turkiye’s parliament was a heinous attempt to sabotage peace in the region and Pakistan’s parliament strongly condemns it. Turkiye’s parliament and its people had shown resilience against these extremist elements, he continued.

Ashraf pointed out that the people of Pakistan and security forces had been at the forefront of the fight against terrorism, therefore, he stressed that the importance of adopting a collective approach to eradicate terrorism.