ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish interior minister claimed on Friday that recent bombings in Istanbul and Bursa provinces were carried out by two far-leftists groups linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). An explosion in Bursa on Wednesday killed a prison guard and injured a number of theirs. The incident took place as a bus was transporting prison guards. The next day, an explosion targeted a Turkish youth association in Istanbul but did not cause any casualties, according to Hurriyet Daily News. “We identified the perpetrators of the incidents in Bursa and Istanbul. They are affiliated with two organizations subcontracting to the PKK,” Suleyman Soylu told NTV on Friday, adding that the Bursa explosion was carried out by the Marxist–Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), an underground party which is active in Turkey and northeast Syria (Rojava), while the Istanbul one was done by the Revolutionary Communard Party (DKP). PKK has not confirmed the alleged link with both groups. Soylu’s comment comes as Ankara is carrying out a military campaign against the PKK in the Kurdistan Region which began on Monday. The PKK has warned that if attacks continue they will move the fight to Turkish cities like Istanbul. “The war will ... spread to Turkey,” Duran Kalkan, a top PKK commander, said one day before the operation. “Consequently, we will witness a much more effective kind of war in the cities of Turkey.” The PKK has stated that it only targets security forces and officials.
