ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday claimed an attack on an aerospace facility in Ankara two days ago, which killed five people and wounded 22 others, had originated from Syria, referring to the Kurdish-controlled enclave in the north and east of the neighboring country.

 

“We understand very well that this terrorist attack infiltrated Turkey from Syria,” Erdogan said when delivering a speech at the Saha Expo Defense & Aerospace Exhibition in Istanbul.

 

“We know very well whose mercenaries were those who carried out the Ankara attack and we know what was their motive and objectives,” Erdogan said. “Rest assured, no terror attempts will disrupt the brotherhood in Turkey.” 

 

Erdogan’s remarks came hours after the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) armed wing People’s Defense Forces (HPG) claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

The group said this attack was “planned a long time ago” and “successfully implemented.”

 

The PKK armed wing said they chose to target the Turkish state’s aerospace facility, TUSAS, because weapons that they produce "have killed thousands of our civilians, including children and women, in Kurdistan.”

 

The group claimed they "did not aim to target civilians in this action."

 

Soon after the attack on TUSAS, the Turkish government blamed the PKK, swiftly taking action by carrying out a massive number of airstrikes against alleged positions of the PKK in the mountainous areas of the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdish-controlled regions of north and east Syria. 

 

The Turkish defense ministry said in their retaliatory attacks, 32 “targets belonging to terrorists were neutralized.” 

 

Turkey carried out 49 drone attacks in north and east of Syria, killing at least 27 civilians including an 11-year-old girl, and wounding scores more, according to London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

 

  

Turkey accuses the US-backed Kurdish authorities of north and east Syria, notably the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing People’s Protection Units (YPG), of allegedly being the Syrian offshoot of the PKK.