The Sabiha Gökçen Airport bombing took place on 23 December 2015 in the apron area of Sabiha Gökçen International Airport in

İstanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_in ...

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 ...

. The explosion, which occurred at approximately 02:05

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

, wounded two airport cleaners, one of whom later died after being taken to hospital. Flights from the terminal resumed as normal while

Binali Yıldırım Binali Yıldırım (; born 20 December 1955) is a Turkish politician who served as the 27th and last Prime Minister of Turkey from 2016 to 2018 and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly from 2018 to 2019. He was Leader of the Justice and Deve ...

, the Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication, claimed that there had been no security lapses at the airport. Witnesses initially claimed that they heard three successive blasts, though their cause was unknown and investigators refused to rule out terrorism as a motive. ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' claimed that the blast was most likely caused by a bomb. The explosion occurred while the

Turkish military The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the armed forces, military forces of the Turkey, Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces, General Staff, the Turki ...

had been continuing its armed operations against

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 south ...

(PKK) militants in the south-east of the country, causing unrest and tensions between Kurdish citizens and the Turkish state ever since a ceasefire and peace negotiations between the two sides broke down in July 2015. On 27 December 2015, four days after the attack, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility for the explosion, announcing that it was a result of a mortar bombing in retaliation for the Turkish Army's continued military operations in Kurdish populated cities in the south-east. The TAK is an urban-based offshoot of the PKK. The attacker was arrested on 28 October 2017 in Istanbul.

Explosion

The explosion was heard at approximately 02:05

EEST Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes i ...

on 23 December 2015, though eyewitnesses claimed that they heard three successive blasts. Initial investigations did not show clear evidence of terrorism, though the Ministry of Transport, Maritime and Communication stated there were no weaknesses in the airport's security. ''The Daily Telegraph'' held an interview with an aviation expert in regards to the blast, who speculated that the explosion had been caused by a bomb. It was claimed in the interview that an interior mechanical fault within a plane would not cause a blast big enough to damage five other planes in the vicinity. The damage to the five planes was attributed to shrapnel caused by a bombing.

Impact and casualties

Two cleaning workers on the site were wounded, with one of them, Zeyhra Yamaç, later dying from head injuries caused by the blast. The Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication,

, said that the explosion had damaged five planes, which were later taken to

hangars A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

for repair. Flights out of the airport continued despite the explosion.

Perpetrators

On 27 December 2015, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) claimed responsibility for the explosion and declared that the blast had been due to a

mortar bomb A mortar is usually a simple, lightweight, man-portable, muzzle-loaded weapon, consisting of a smooth-bore (although some models use a rifled barrel) metal tube fixed to a base plate (to spread out the recoil) with a lightweight bipod mount and ...

. The TAK gave their motive to be the ongoing 'fascist' military operations by the

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The current Chie ...

in mainly Kurdish-populated south-eastern cities, designed to combat PKK militants in the region. The attacker was arrested on 28 October 2017 in Istanbul.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabiha Gokcen Airport bombing 2015 in Istanbul Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present) Kurdistan Freedom Hawks attacks Terrorist attacks on airports Terrorist incidents in Istanbul Terrorist incidents in Turkey in 2015 2015 murders in Turkey Building bombings in Turkey Attacks on buildings and structures in Istanbul Attacks in Turkey in 2015

Explosion

Impact and casualties

Perpetrators

See also

References