First impressions from the Beyoglu terror attack

TURKEY - In Brief 14 Nov 2022 by Atilla Yesilada
On Sunday 4 pm, a bomb exploded in the busy entertainment venue,  Beyoglu, killing six and injuring 81. The death toll could increase further. The female suspect was apprehended immediately, after which the police conducted broad raids netting about 80 alleged accomplices. The suspect claims she was trained and instructed by PKK and its Syrian ally PYD-PYG. In this first Market Brief I share my impressions on the incident, trying to provide a first-responder answer to questions like why and how it affects foreign policy and election dynamics. The suspect is a Syrian Arab national, Ahlam Albashir, who reportedly had confessed in her police interrogation that she has been trained in the Syrian canton of Afrin (currently under the occupation of Turkish military and its allied Syrian elements) for terror operations. The administration immediately imposed a social media block-out on my main sources of information from the grapevine, namely YouTube and Twitter. Whether the reported confession is true will have to be tested against alternative theories in the coming days. I don’t necessarily question the official account of the terror strike. PKK had attacked a police station in Adana in July. The terror organization is under very heavy pressure from Turkish military in its home base in Qandil Mountains, Iraq and has been unable to fight back on the field. However, PYD/YPG has refrained from attacking targets on Turkish soil so far, and I can’t find a rational reason why it would attract the ire of Turkish military, at a time Erdogan’s threat of another campaign on its homeland stands. IF this is the handy work of PYD/YPG, Erdogan may invoke his threat to attack Syrian Kurds ...

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