Diyarbakır Bomb Blamed on PKK

On 12 September 2006, a bomb exploded in the Koşuyolu park in Diyarbakır, in the southeast of Turkey. 10 people, most of them children, died.

Three years on, the Diyarbakır Anti-Terrorism Police carried out operations in six provinces, including Diyarbakır, Batman and Konya, on 22 March. The ten people taken into custody are said to be members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and have been held responsible for the attack.

After the bombing, experts had found that a device had been exploded with a remote control.

According to the Firat News Agency, the PKK had denied involvement in the attack, saying that it had been carried out by “certain powers within the Turkish special war system”.

The news agency later claimed that the Turkish Revenge Brigade (TİT) had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Cavit Torun, former Diyarbakır MP for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has previously suggested that the clandestine ultranationalist Ergenekon organisation may have been responsible for the attack. (BÇ/AG)