ankara blast
© REUTERS/ Umit Bektas



Comment: As we pointed out when TAK claimed responsibility for the previous Ankara bombing, TAK seemingly came out of nowhere in 2004. No one seems to know who started the group, and they do not answer to the PKK. In all likelihood, they are a 'pseudo-gang', as the British counter-insurgency operatives called them. The PKK gets nothing from attacks like this; Erdogan's regime is the only party who benefits (see: Erdogan slaughters Turkish civilians in Ankara and takes immediate vengeance on the Kurds).


The Kurdish Freedom Falcons (TAK) group took responsibility for Sunday's deadly terror attack in Ankara, the group said in an online statement on Thursday.

A car bomb exploded at a bus stop in central Ankara on Sunday, leaving at least 37 dead and over 120 injured.

TAK stated on its website that the attack was targeted against Turkey's security forces and there was no intention to kill civilians.

Turkey has been hit by numerous terrorist attacks in recent months, with both Islamist and Kurdish militant groups allegedly responsible. The Kurds are Turkey's largest ethnic minority, comprising some 25 percent of the country's population.

Relations between Ankara and the Kurds, both inside the country and in neighboring Syria and Iraq, have been progressively worsening. Ankara has been carrying out a campaign against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which seeks to create a Kurdish state in parts of Turkey and Iraq.