Exclusive: Muslim rejects PYD involvement in Ankara blast

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) - One of the most influential Kurdish parties and its leadership in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) rejects alleged Kurdish involvement in Wednesday's Ankara blast, which killed dozens. 

On Thursday, Saleh Muslim, co-chairman of the Democratic Union Pary (PYD) exclusively told K24 that PYD is not responsible for the bombing that killed 28 people.

"PYD has nothing to do with the Ankara explosion," Muslim said.

“The Turkish government fabricates accusations against the Kurds in Syria [to find] a pretext to legitimize their intervention [in Syria]," he said.

“It is known that Turkey’s assault on Rojava in the last few days was the beginning of a Turkish campaign against the Kurds in Syria, and Turkey knows that its assault is illegal and violates human rights and international treaties,” he added.

Muslim also said that the unique style of democracy in  Rojava and the victories of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the ground infuriate Turkey.

“So all Turkey’s accusations included in the Prime Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoğlu statements against the Kurds regarding the Ankara blast last night are not true because the world knows that we [Rojava] are not seeking war.”

On Thursday, Turkey identified the perpetrator of the bombing attack as a member of the military wing of the PYD--the People's Protection Units (YPG), stated Prime Minister Davutoglu, though other reports claim the perpetrator is not a YPG member.

In a live television speech, Davutoglu said the bombing showed that YPG is a terrorist organization and that Turkey expects cooperation from its allies against the group.

"In light of [the] information we have obtained, it has been clearly identified that this attack has been carried out by the members of a terrorist organization inside Turkey together with a YPG member...who crossed [into Turkey] from Syria," Davutoglu said.

Turkey is incensed by Kurdish expansion and overall influence in northern Syria, fearing it will encourage separatist ambitions among Kurds in Turkey as well. Currently, YPG and its allies control nearly all of Syria's frontier border with Turkey.

Reporting by Hisham Arafat and Mewan Dolamari

Editing by Benjamin Kweskin