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Gun Battle Breaks Out Outside U.S. Consulate in Istanbul Gun Battle Breaks Out Outside U.S. Consulate in Istanbul
(about 3 hours later)
ISTANBUL — Attackers opened fire outside the American Consulate here Monday morning, setting off a brief gun battle with the police, as violence in Turkey continued to escalate about two weeks after the United States agreed to cooperate more closely with the government against the Islamic State. ISTANBUL — Attackers opened fire outside the American consulate here on Monday morning, setting off a brief gun battle with the police as violence in Turkey continued to escalate nearly two weeks after the government began what it called a major counterterrorism effort, part of which was increased cooperation with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State.
No Americans or Turkish police officers were wounded in the attack, after which the two assailants fled. Turkish special forces later caught an injured woman at a house in the Sariyer district of Istanbul who was suspected of having taken part in the attack, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency. No Americans or Turkish police officers were wounded in the attack, which ended when the two assailants fled. Turkish special forces later caught an injured woman at a house in the Sariyer district of Istanbul suspected of having taken part in the attack, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency.
The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, a leftist anti-American group that has been banned in Turkey, claimed responsibility for the attack and identified the suspect captured by the police as Hatice Asik, 51. The assault was one of four major incidents of violence across Turkey on Monday, none of them attributed to the Islamic State. They were instead blamed on the Marxist and anti-American Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, which claimed the consulate attack, and the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or P.K.K. That group has fought an insurgency in Turkey for more than three decades and Turkey’s government views it as a primary threat.
“Our struggle will continue until imperialism and its collaborators leave our country and every parcel of our homeland is cleared of U.S. bases,” the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front said in a statement on its website. “Hatice Asik is our honor. America get out, this country is ours.” The pattern of increased violence in recent weeks has raised alarm among the Turkish public, and comes against the backdrop of political instability. After national elections held on June 7, the Islamist Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., which has ruled for more than a decade, was left without a majority in Parliament, and has failed to agree on a coalition with opposition parties since then. With those talks seemingly at a deadlock, the prospect of new elections — probably in November — has become more likely.
The consulate said in a statement that it was working with the Turkish authorities to investigate the attack, and that it would be closed to the public until further notice. The June election was a significant defeat for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had hoped for a large A.K.P. majority in a bid to rewrite the constitution to establish an executive presidency. Many critics now accuse him of renewing an armed struggle with the P.K.K. to foster nationalist sentiment and reclaim lost votes in new elections.
The attack was one of several violent episodes across the country on Monday, which some attributed to a rise in clashes between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast. That long conflict with the P.K.K. had waned in recent years as a fragile cease-fire took hold and the P.K.K. and its affiliates began fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. The successes that an offshoot of the P.K.K. has had in fighting the militants — with American support — and how Syrian Kurds have begun to carve out an autonomous enclave along the Turkish border have unnerved Turkey.
The attack at the consulate came hours after a bomb attack at an Istanbul police station left one officer dead and at least 10 people wounded. Two people who were believed to have been involved in the bombing were killed in a shootout, according to reports in the Turkish news media. The Turkish government views the enclave as a security threat, fearing it could incite Kurds in Turkey to seek more autonomy. But the attacks on the P.K.K. and its affiliates have left Turkey, a NATO member, in the position of bombing an ally of the United States that is coordinating attacks for American bombing runs against the Islamic State in northern Syria.
Turkey, a member of NATO, recently began taking a more active role in the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and it has granted American warplanes access to its air bases, to help strike Islamic State positions in Syria and Iraq. Parallel to the renewed attacks against the P.K.K. has been a more aggressive approach by Turkey toward the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh. Turkish officials have granted American warplanes access to their air bases to help strike Islamic State positions in Syria and Iraq, which would help the United States clear the Islamic State from a stretch of its border with Syria. In recent days Turkey’s top religious body, which is overseen by the state, said it would begin distributing anti-ISIS sermons to mosques around the country.
The attack on the consulate on Monday came a day after the United States military said it had sent six fighter jets to the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey. The decision by Turkey to play a bigger role in the fight against ISIS was welcomed by the United States, which had been sharply critical of Turkey’s leadership for more than a year for failing to do more in the fight against the militants.
The decision by Turkey to play a bigger role in the fight against the Islamic State was welcomed by the United States, which for more than a year has been sharply critical of Turkey for failing to do more in the fight against the militants. The consulate attack came a day after the United States military said it had sent six fighter jets to the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey. The group that claimed responsibility, the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front-Party, has attacked American interests in Turkey before and appeared to be motivated by the American military presence here.
That decision appears to have led to increased instability inside the country, however, partly because Turkey’s increased aggressiveness against the Islamic State has coincided with a renewed conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which for more than three decades has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state. “Our struggle will continue until imperialism and its collaborators leave our country and every parcel of our homeland is cleared of U.S. bases,” the group said in a statement on its website. In 2013, the group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack against the American embassy in Ankara, the Turkish capital. .
That long conflict waned in recent years as a fragile cease-fire took hold, and the P.K.K. and its affiliates began fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. Turkey has been particularly alarmed by the situation in Syria, where an offshoot of the P.K.K. has had success fighting the militants — with American support — and Syrian Kurds have begun to carve out an autonomous enclave in an area that abuts the Turkish border. Turkey views this a security threat, as it could incite Kurds in Turkey to seek more autonomy. Officials at the consulate said in a statement that they wereworking with the Turkish authorities to investigate the attack and that it would be closed to the public until further notice.
There were two attacks on Monday in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, where tensions have flared in recent weeks as citizens prepare for the return of a war they had hoped was ending as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pursued peace talks. The gunfight near the consulate occurred a few hours after a bomb attack on an Istanbul police station that left one officer dead and at least 10 people wounded. Two people who were believed to have been involved in the bombing were killed in a shootout, according to reports in the Turkish news media, and no group claimed responsibility.
In one of the attacks, a roadside bomb in Silopi killed four police officers, according to local news reports. A Turkish soldier was killed in a separate attack after Kurdish militants opened fire at a military helicopter in the southeastern province of Sirnak, the military said in a statement. There were two attacks on Monday in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern Turkey province of Sirnak, where tensions have flared in recent weeks as citizens prepare for the return of a war they had hoped was ending as Mr. Erdogan, in recent years, pursued peace talks.
The consulate attack was not the first against Americans in Turkey. In 2013, a suicide bomber struck the American Embassy in Ankara, the capital, killing a security guard. That attack was claimed by the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front. In one of the attacks, a roadside bomb in Silopi killed four police officers, according to local news reports. A Turkish soldier was killed in a separate attack in the Sirnak province after Kurdish militants opened fire at a military helicopter, the military said in a statement.
As the P.K.K., which has faced Turkish airstrikes on its bases in the mountains of northern Iraq, have increased attacks inside Turkey, Kurdish politicians here have scrambled to rein in the violence and preserve gains they made in the elections. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, or H.D.P., passed a 10 percent threshold to enter Parliament for the first time, gains that experts said came at the expense of votes for the A.K.P.
The H.D.P. and the P.K.K. largely share a constituency in Turkey, but they tend to operate separately. Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the H.D.P., said at a peace rally in the southeastern province of Van on Saturday, “the P.K.K. must take its hands off the trigger immediately and declare that it will abide by the terms of the cease-fire.”
At a rally on Monday, Mr. Demirtas charged that the government had supported ISIS — a widely held view among Kurds in Turkey — and said Mr. Erdogan was using war to reverse his electoral defeat.