Eight killed, 100 wounded as blast hits Kurdish-majority city in Turkey

At least eight people have been killed after a blast hit the center of Turkey’s southeastern city of Diyarbakir, which has witnessed tensions between Ankara’s forces and Kurdish militants.

Turkish media reported that ambulances were dispatched to the site of the blast in the city’s Baglar district on Friday morning.

The blast took place near a police station, where pro-Kurdish lawmakers arrested hours earlier were taken, said a security source on condition of anonymity.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced the death toll and said some 100 others have also been wounded.

He blamed militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the attack, adding that a suspected militant was also killed in the incident.

In an earlier statement following the incident, the office of Diyarbakir’s provincial governor said the explosion was caused by a car bomb, adding that PKK militants are believed to have been behind the attack.

In the early hours of the day, Turkish security forces detained two co-leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) along with a number of other lawmakers from the second-biggest opposition bloc in parliament.

Selahattin Demirtas was arrest at his home in Diyarbakir and Figen Yuksekdag at her residence in the capital, Ankara, as “part of an ongoing counter-terrorism investigation.”

Following the overnight arrests of the opposition figures, reports emerged of restrictions on nationwide access to online social media and messaging services, including WhatsApp.

The Turkish Justice Ministry on Friday defended the arrests and said they are in line with the law.

Yildirim also said a dozen HDP lawmakers were detained on Friday because they refused to give testimony in criminal proceedings.

He added that those officials who encourage “terrorism” must face legal proceedings.

Tensions have been running high in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast since a ceasefire declared by the PKK collapsed in 2015 in the wake of Ankara’s military operations against the Kurdish group’s positions both inside the country as well as in northern Iraq.

In response to the military raids, PKK militants have stepped up their attacks against Turkish security forces over the past 18 months.

This is while Turkey has so been under a state of emergency since the failed military coup against the government in mid-July. Ankara has launched a heavy-handed crackdown against those suspected of having links with the coup plotters.

Critics say the Turkish government is using the abortive coup as a pretext to suppress the opposition.

Ankara-Berlin tensions

In another development on Friday, Germany called in Ankara’s ambassador in protest at the Turkish government’s campaign of arrest against pro-Kurdish lawmakers.

Ankara “has the right to counter the threat of terrorism ... that should not serve as a justification to muzzle the opposition or to put them behind bars,” said a source at the German Foreign Ministry.

On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at Germany, saying the European country has turned into a safe haven for “terrorists,” referring to opposition supporters.

Ankara blames US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen and his wide-ranging support-base for the military coup attempt in July.

He said Germany has given asylum to both PKK militants, who have waged a three-decade insurgency for autonomy, and members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Partisi-Cephesi or DHKP-C), who have carried out armed attacks in Turkey.

Also on Friday, the Turkish justice minister also hit out at Berlin, accusing Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers of interfering in Turkey’s justice system.

“Both Merkel and the government spokesperson thought they have right to opine on all ongoing cases,” Bozdag said during a visit to a court in Ankara.

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