The People’s Defence Units (YPG) announced on Monday that it had no involvement with the bomb attack in Istanbul that killed six people, and denied Turkey’s accusations saying that Turkey “has begun to create an imaginary scenario far from reality.”
In response to the claims of Turkish security forces, who said that the perpetrator had entered Turkey from Afrin, the YPG stressed that Afrin has been under Turkey’s control since 2018.
YPG noted in a statement they had no relations with the perpetrator Ehlam Al-Bashir, who left the bomb on the scene and was arrested by Turkish police in an overnight operation following the attack.
“The whole world knows that the method of our forces is to protect human rights and fight terrorism. We condemn any attack targeting civilians,” the statement follows.
The YPG argued that before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan went to Indonesia to attend the G20 summit, he tried to find an excuse to gain international approval for Turkey’s military attacks against North and East Syria.
Following the bomb attack on Istiklal Avenue in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, on Sunday, the Turkish authorities announced that the woman who left the bomb at the scene was caught in the operations carried out that night.
State-run Turkish Anadolu Agency reported the news as the Syrian bomber Ahlam Al-bashir confessed that she was trained as an intelligence agent by the People’s Defence Centre of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the People’s Defence Units (YPG) and received instructions from North and East Syria.
Nevertheless, the accused Kurdish groups from the PKK and Syria strongly condemned the attack, extending their condolences to the families of victims, and declared that they had no involvement whatsoever with the attacks.