The 2007 Ankara bombing was a suicide attack that occurred in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

, the capital of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, on 22 May 2007. Six people were reported killed, including one of Pakistani origin, and 121 people were wounded. A seventh person died from his injuries on 7 June and another on 17 June raising the death toll to eight. A ninth person died on 4 July from his injuries.

The attack

The explosion occurred outside a shopping centre in the Ulus quarter of Ankara. The police reports suggested a "suicide bombing". A type A4 bomb has been reported as being the cause of the explosion and the "Terror and Organised Crime Unit" ( tr, Terör ve Organize Suçlar) has taken over the investigation. The explosion shattered windows of the shopping centre and of nearby buildings creating havoc. The Ankara bombing came as more than 35 world leaders, including the U.S. President, were in Istanbul for a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

summit that began on Monday, which left tensions high as numerous other incidents have occurred in the run-up to the meeting. It also heightened political tensions between the secular and non-secular parties of Turkey, as both fight for public support and leadership of the nation. The timing of the bombing raised assassination suspicions since General

Yaşar Büyükanıt General Mehmet Yaşar Büyükanıt (1 September 1940 – 21 November 2019) was the 25th Chief of the Turkish General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces, from 28 August 2006 to 28 August 2008. Biography General Yaşar Büyükanıt was born in Ist ...

(

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( United States) * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Af ...

), General

İlker Başbuğ Mehmet İlker Başbuğ (; born 29 April 1943) was the 26th Chief of the General Staff of Turkey. He was charged with contravention of Articles 309, 310, and 311 of the Turkish Penal Code. In August 2013, he was convicted on charges of "establish ...

(Commander of the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

), General Işık Koşaner (Commander of the Gendarmerie), General

Faruk Cömert General Faruk Cömert, 26th Commander of the Turkish Air Force, was born in the Vezirköprü district of Samsun Province, Turkey, in 1946. He began his military career when he entered the Air Force High School in 1960. Cömert graduated from the ...

(Commander of the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

), and Admiral Yener Karahanoğlu (Commander of the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

) were to attend the IDEF Defense Fair same day held at the Anatolian Civilizations Museum ( tr, Anadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesi) crossing the blast zone. The suicide bomber was later identified as Güven Akkuş. Circumstances regarding the explosion of Akkuş's explosives remains unclear. The police has three competing theories: #While moving towards the target suicide bomber Akkuş panicked when a squad car coincidentally stopped in front of him, leading him to detonate his explosive. #Type A-4 explosives are sensitive to body temperature so it is possible that the explosives self-detonated while Akkuş and a collaborator only identified by her code name "Ayşe" panicked after the encounter with the squad car. #Collaborator "Ayşe" detonated Akkuş's explosives remotely when Akkuş panicked. Collaborator "Ayşe" is known to have visited a hospital briefly after the bombing and is currently at large. The attack was claimed by the

Kurdistan Freedom Hawks The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks or TAK ( ku, Teyrêbazên Azadiya Kurdistan), is a Kurdish nationalist militant group in Turkey seeking an independent Kurdish state in Turkish Kurdistan (eastern and southeastern Turkey). The group also opposes the Tu ...

(TAK). Turkish government claims TAK is part of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of sout ...

(PKK) but PKK denies this.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ankara Bombing, 2007 2007 2007 murders in Turkey Shopping mall bombings Kurdistan Freedom Hawks attacks Mass murder in 2007 2007 May 2007 crimes May 2007 events in Turkey 2007 Terrorist incidents in Turkey in 2007 Suicide bombings in 2007 Building bombings in Turkey

The attack

See also

References