Kurdistan Freedom Hawks Claims Responsibility for Istanbul Attacks

Turkey declared a day of national mourning on Sunday to commemorate the victims of two deadly explosions that occurred on Saturday night in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul. Concurrently, reports indicate that the group "Kurdistan Freedom Hawks" claimed responsibility for these attacks. According to the Associated Press, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, which has previously taken responsibility for several attacks in Turkey, stated that two of its members carried out these attacks. In an online statement, the group mentioned that "the Saturday night explosions once again shook a nation still struggling to recover from a failed coup and several explosions over the past year." The explosions, which took place outside the Beşiktaş stadium after a football match, targeted police forces, resulting in the deaths of 30 police officers and seven civilians, with the identity of another victim still unknown. At least 155 people were injured in these explosions, with 14 of them remaining in critical care. Meanwhile, Turkey's Interior Minister announced that 13 individuals were arrested on suspicion of connections to "terrorist activities." On Sunday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the injured and emphasized that "Turkey's efforts to combat terrorism will continue until the end." The Interior Minister, during the funeral of five police officers in Istanbul, stated: "Sooner or later, we will take our revenge. These bloods will not remain on the ground, and no matter what the cost is, we will pay it." The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, which is a splinter group of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), had previously claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in the heart of Ankara in March 2016, which left at least 37 dead and many injured. In recent years, Turkey has been the scene of various terrorist attacks and deadly explosions, with Turkish officials sometimes attributing these incidents to the so-called "Islamic State" and at other times to Kurdish militants of the PKK. In this context, the death toll from the Istanbul explosions has reached 38.