TAK claims responsibility for Istanbul attack
TAK said the attack outside a police station was in response to "the International October 9 Conspiracy and [Turkish Government's] oppression and tyranny on the people of Kurdistan."
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) claimed responsibility for an explosion caused by a motorcycle bomb in central Istanbul in Turkey that wounded ten people on Thursday.
A Friday statement on the website of the TAK said the attack outside a police station in the Yenibosna neighborhood was in response to "the International October 9 Conspiracy and [Turkish Government's] oppression and tyranny on the people of Kurdistan."
"The October 9 Conspiracy" is the name Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-affiliated media and organizations use to refer to Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan's departure from Syria in 1998 after Turkey's threat of war.
The incident eventually led to the US Intelligence-backed Turkey's capture of Ocalan in Kenya in February 1999.
TAK claimed the Istanbul attack caused more harm than what Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and its media reported.
"We have stated that Turkey is not a safe country before. Our actions will further expand and proliferate as the Republic of Turkey and the AKP continue the oppression," read the TAK statement threatening further attacks on major Turkish cities and individuals working with the government.
TAK splinted from PKK in 2004, declaring the "methods of struggle" of the PKK and the Kurdistan People's Congress "too feeble."
The United States, European Union, and the United Kingdom all designate the TAK a terrorist organization.
However, Turkey does not consider the group independent from the PKK.
Turkish troops and the PKK guerrillas have been locked in a renewed conflict in urban and mountainous areas of Kurdistan of Turkey since a two-year held ceasefire and peace negotiations collapsed in mid-2015.
Editing by Ava Homa