Attack on Turkish Aerospace Industries leaves several dead and many wounded

An attack on Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) on the outskirts of Ankara has left five people dead and 22 wounded, the Turkish interior ministry said on Wednesday.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said "two terrorists" had been "neutralised" during the incident, which he described as a "terror attack".

Turkish sources familiar with the attack told Middle East Eye that two attackers, a man and a woman, hijacked a taxi and approached the gates of TAI, which employs over 15,000 people.

The attackers are believed to have killed a taxi driver that took them to the scene of the attack, before detonating a bomb at the entrance and clashing with a security guard.

One of the attackers was able to enter the premises as staff hurried to bomb shelters.

"The attacker then tried to enter the human resources department and the academy," one source told MEE, adding: "Eleven hostages were later released after a special forces operation that included a gunfight and explosions." 

The source said that the operation against the attackers had ended. 

Yerlikaya later told media that the initial information indicated that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an armed group that is designated as a terror group by Turkey, the US, the UK, and the European Union, was behind the attack.

"Our assessment is that the way this action took place and the images we watched, most likely point out the PKK," he said. 

The PKK, which seeks autonomy and greater Kurdish rights, has for three decades conducted similar attacks on both hard and soft targets, resulting in thousands of deaths.

So far no one has been officially blamed, nor has anyone or any group claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack.

An employee working at TAI, who was in the building at the time of the attack, told MEE that several colleagues of his had been injured as they were shot at by the assailants. 

He said the attackers were using guns with silencers and wearing black outfits resembling security personnel, creating confusion.  

"We heard new gunshots towards us, as we were running towards the safe area," he said. "I was directing people to the evacuation site when a bullet hit and slightly injured a colleague of mine in the knee. We didn’t exactly see where the shooting was coming from," the employee said. 

The employee said TAI kept the workers updated during the attack through text messages to help subdue the panic. Many left while special forces were in a gunfight with the attackers. 

The attack occurred a day after Turkish nationalist leader Devlet Bahceli, a key member of the Turkish ruling coalition, shocked the nation during a public speech and called for disarmament and a peace process with the PKK.

Selahattin Demirtas, an imprisoned Kurdish politician and former chairman of a pro-Kurdish party in Turkey, supported Bahceli's call on Wednesday, and condemned the attack, indicating a potential rift between the Kurdish political movement and the PKK. 

"If Ocalan takes an initiative and wants to pave the way for politics, we will be behind him with all our might," he said in a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "We will never allow the voices of those who want peace to be suppressed this time, regardless of who it comes from." Abdullah Ocalan is the longtime imprisoned leader of the PKK.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said that an investigation has been launched by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the "treacherous" attack, with one deputy chief public prosecutor and eight public prosecutors assigned to the case.

A Turkish court imposed a broadcast ban on the incident on Wednesday. Sources said the government has been throttling data transfers on social media, such as X and YouTube, in order to "calm" the public. 

The attack coincides with a major trade fair for the defence and aerospace industries taking place in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul.

A Turkish security source told MEE on Wednesday that Turkey is currently hitting PKK targets both in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey's defence and aviation industry achieved a new record in export figures in 2023, with total exports of nearly $5.5bn