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At least five people were killed and 22 injured in a terrorist attack at a sprawling industrial facility of Turkey’s state aerospace company on the outskirts of Ankara on Wednesday, Turkey’s interior minister said.
Ali Yerlikaya said at a press conference on Wednesday evening that two terrorists had also been “neutralised” in the incident at Turkish Aerospace Industries’ (TAI) central campus in Kahramankazan, which is about a 40-minute drive from the city centre.
He added that the attack was “very likely” carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), a separatist group that has fought a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.
“I condemn this heinous terrorist attack and pray to God for mercy on our martyrs,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said from Kazan, Russia,where he is attending the Brics summit.
Assailants struck the TAI site with bombs and gunfire, according to Turkey’s state Anadolu news service. Yerlikaya said special operations units, police and gendarmerie responded at the scene.
Wednesday’s incident comes just over a year after suicide bombers struck a government building in Ankara, an incident orchestrated by the PKK.
Devlet Bahçeli, Erdoğan’s ultranationalist ally, had on Tuesday this week invited jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan to address parliament if he would agree to disband the group and halt its operations — remarks that were carried widely across Turkish media.
Isis and far-left militants have also staged bombings in Turkey in the past.
The last major round of terror attacks in the country took place from 2015 to 2017 and included several bombings in the capital. Ankara was also one of the battlegrounds in the failed 2016 military coup attempt, in which the parliament building was damaged.
TAI is a national champion, playing a central role in Turkey’s blossoming defence sector. The group designs and produces everything from aircraft and helicopters to drones and satellites at the 4mn sq metres Kahramankazan facility, according to its website.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack, but Ankara’s chief public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation, according to justice minister Yılmaz Tunç. The country’s radio and television regulator also instituted broadcasting bans related to imagery from the attack, warning that those who failed to comply would be “severely punished”.
Turkey’s internet censors also clamped down on access to major platforms, including X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and messaging app Telegram, said Yaman Akdeniz, co-founder of the Turkish Freedom of Expression Association.
He described the curbs, which authorities have often implemented around terror attacks and elections, as “a clear violation of communication rights of millions of people in Turkey”.
Several international leaders condemned Wednesday’s attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences while sitting across from Erdoğan at a meeting on the sidelines of the Brics summit.
Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte also said on X that he had spoken with Erdoğan: “My message was clear: Nato stands with Turkey.”
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