Istanbul Carm Bombing (June 2016)
The Istanbul car bombing on June 7, 2016, was a tragic terrorist attack occurring in the city's Vezneciler district, targeting a police bus and resulting in the deaths of twelve individuals, including seven police officers, and injuring thirty-six others. The attack was carried out by a member of the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a group linked to the Kurdish independence movement, which has a complex history of conflict with the Turkish state. The incident marked a continuation of violence and unrest in Turkey, which has experienced numerous attacks from both radical Kurdish factions and ISIS in recent years. Following the bombing, the TAK claimed responsibility, stating the attack was a reprisal for governmental actions against Kurds in southeastern Turkey.
The historical context of the conflict includes a long-standing struggle for Kurdish rights and autonomy within Turkey, dating back to the early 20th century, with escalations in violence occurring intermittently since the 1980s. The bombing reflects broader tensions in the region, including the dynamics of Kurdish activism and the Turkish government's military actions against Kurdish groups. In the aftermath, Turkish officials and international leaders condemned the attack, underscoring the ongoing challenges that Turkey faces in addressing terrorism and maintaining national security amidst a backdrop of ethnic and political strife.
Subject Terms
Istanbul Carm Bombing (June 2016)
Date: June 7, 2016
Place: Istanbul, Turkey
Summary
The June 2016 Istanbul car bombing was a terrorist attack that occurred in the Vezneciler district of Istanbul, when a member of the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK; also known as Kurdistan Freedom Hawks) detonated a bomb on a public street, targeting a police bus. The attack killed twelve people and injured thirty-six others.
Key Events
- June 7, 2016—A remote bomb is detonated in a car on Sehzadebasi Avenue just as a bus carrying police officers passes through the street.
- June 8, 2016—A car bomb explodes in the town of Midyat, near the border of Syria, killing five people and injuring more than thirty.
- June 10, 2016—The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) release a statement claiming responsibility for the June 7 attack and warning tourists not to visit Turkey.
- August 20, 2016—A suicide bomber targets a Kurdish wedding in the town of Gaziantep, killing fifty-four people and injuring more than sixty.
Status
Turkey continues to struggle with frequent terrorist attacks linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and radical factions of the Kurdish independence movement. On August 20, 2016, an unknown suicide bomber detonated an explosive at a wedding in the town of Gaziantep, killing fifty-four people, twenty-nine of whom were under the age of eighteen. Investigators discovered that the explosive was similar to those used by ISIS. As at least half of those attending the wedding were Kurds, Turkish officials believe that ISIS likely carried out the attack to deepen the animosity between the Turkish state and Kurdish independence groups.
In-Depth Overview
The Kurds represent an ethnolinguistic group that lives in portions of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Armenia, and Syria. In Anatolia, the Kurdish population resisted absorption into the Turkish republic in the early 1900s, and sporadic fighting has occurred between the Turkish government and radical Kurdish groups since the 1920s. After a long period of relative peace, relations between Kurdish independents and the Turkish state deteriorated in the 1970s. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), founded in 1978, began an overt armed struggle against the Turkish government in 1984, seeking independence or self-determination for Turkey’s Kurdish minority. PKK founder and leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured and imprisoned in 1999, after which the organization accepted a cease-fire.
In 2014, peshmerga (Kurdish guerrilla forces) began fighting ISIS. The PKK called for the Turkish government to support their fight against ISIS, but conflict between Turks and Kurds along the border resulted in the Turkish government bombing PKK military positions, reportedly in retaliation for PKK attacks on Turkish military outposts. These events led to a renewal of hostility between the Turkish government and the PKK. Throughout 2015 and 2016, Turkey suffered numerous terrorist attacks, carried out by both ISIS and radical Kurdish independence groups. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), believed to be a splinter group of the PKK, became the most prominent terrorist group to emerge from the Kurdish independence movement in Turkey in the 2010s. The PKK denies any connection to the TAK or control over the group’s activities, and the Turkish government believes that the TAK is a small organization with less than one hundred members. Some Turkish security experts believe that the TAK is still under the control of the PKK and may have been created so that the PKK could engage in terrorist attacks while disavowing responsibility.
In October 2015, there were a series of suicide bombings in Ankara, Turkey, at a peace rally in support of Kurdish-Turkish peace; the Turkish government claimed ISIS was responsible, though the group itself did not claim responsibility. The suicide attacks killed one hundred people and stimulated retribution from Kurdish groups believing that the Turkish government planned the attack. In February 2016, the TAK claimed responsibility for a bomb on a military convoy traveling through the city of Ankara, which killed more than thirty-eight people. The TAK also claimed responsibility for a car-bomb attack in May in the city of Ankara, which resulted in thirty-seven deaths and hundreds of injuries. As the TAK continued to accept responsibility for an escalating number of terrorist attacks, Turkey simultaneously experienced attacks by affiliates of ISIS.
On June 7, 2016, a terrorist detonated a remote bomb on Sehzadebasi Avenue in Istanbul’s Beyazit neighborhood. The attack occurred at 8:40 a.m. and targeted a bus carrying police through the neighborhood. The blast killed seven police officers and four civilians, injuring at least thirty-six others in the surrounding area. After the attack, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited wounded individuals in the hospital and gave a statement to the press claiming that the Turkish government would fight against all forms of terrorism. Officials from France, the United States, and Germany also released statements condemning the attack. On July 10, the TAK released an official statement claiming responsibility for the attack and saying it was in retaliation for Turkish government attacks on Kurdish people in Nusaybin and Sirnak, two southeastern regions where the Turkish government has been clashing with Kurdish peshmerga. Turkish newspaper Milliyet claimed that the TAK identified the suicide bomber responsible for the June 7 attack as thirty-two-year-old Eylem Yasa from Diyarbakir, who had been a member of TAK since 2011.
Key Figures
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: President of Turkey.
Abdullah Öcalan: Imprisoned former leader and founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Eylem Yasa (Eylem Nawroz): Individual identified by the TAK as the bomber responsible for the attack.
Bibliography
Farooq, U., & King, L. (2016, August 22). Turkish officials backtrack, say suicide bomber at wedding may not have been a child. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-turkey-wedding-suicide-bomber-20160822-snap-story.html
Istanbul attack: Kurdish group claims deadly car-bombing. (2016, June 10). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36501645
Istanbul bomb attack on police bus kills 11. (2016, June 7). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36466744
Istanbul’s car-bomb attacker identified. (2016, June 13). Milliyet. Retrieved from http://www.milliyet.com.tr/istanbul-s-car-bomb-attacker-en-2261406/en.htm
Tuysuz, G., McKirdy, E., & Hume, T. (2016, June 7). 4 detained after car bomb kills 11 in Istanbul. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/07/europe/istanbul-car-bomb/
Yeginsu, C. (2016, June 7). Bomb in Istanbul kills 11 near tourist district. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/world/europe/istanbul-turkey-bomb.html