The leadership of the Democratic Union Party (DUP), the largest Syrian Kurdish political organization, condemned the November 13th terrorist attack in Istanbul and expressed its condolences to the families of the victims. The DUP said in a statement released Tuesday by the Firat news agency that Kurdish People's Self-Defense Units (YPG) had nothing to do with the criminal raid.
"Attempts by Turkish intelligence services to blame our fighters for the attack are aimed at justifying a new military operation being prepared by Ankara in northern Syria to expand the border security zone," the statement stressed.
The DUP warns the international public "of fabricated accusations against Kurdish forces." "We expose the Turkish plot to discredit the Kurdish formations that defeated the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) in Syria," the document reads.
As a result of the explosion on November 13 in Istiklal Street in Istanbul, 6 people were killed and more than 80 injured. According to the investigation, the terrorist act was committed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) banned in Turkey and the YPG units that form the backbone of the Democratic Syrian Forces that control most of the provinces of Al-Hasakah and Raqqa, as well as the Kobani area on the Euphrates and northeast of Deir ez-Zor. Kurdish units act against Turkish troops and the Syrian armed opposition supported by Ankara.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said that the traces of the attack in Istanbul led to Syria, and that it involved groups recognized by Ankara as terrorist.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS