Turkey’s defence minister late on October 23 settled on the Kurdish separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as responsible for a murderous terror attack on state defence contractor Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) on the outskirts of Ankara, which left at least five people dead and 22 wounded.

Attackers caught on camera (Credit: @CNNTURK on X).

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya was more circumspect. Saying that the two attackers, a woman and a man, had been "neutralised", he added that the attack most likely involved the militant PKK, a group designated as “terrorist” by Turkey and countries including fellow Nato members.

Footage showing explosion at TUSAS during attack (Credit: @sentdefender on X).

Notably, on October 22, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally, Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), surprised many Turkey analysts when he said that the PKK's jailed leader, Abdullah Ocalan, could be permitted to speak in Turkey's parliament, if he announced an end to the group's four-decade-long insurgency, in exchange for the possibility of being freed from prison.

"If the terrorist leader's isolation is lifted, let him come and speak," Bahceli said, proposing that Ocalan, incarcerated since 1999, address the assembly’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party in parliament. "Let him shout that terrorism is completely over and the organisation disbanded," added Bahceli.

The peace talks held by the Turkish state with Ocalan and the PKK from 2012 collapsed in July 2015. Around 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency that began in 1984.

In further remarks, Bahceli said there was no need for a new peace process. The PKK should surrender unconditionally to Turkish justice and serve prison sentences, he said, before referring to a proposed introduction of unspecified democratic reforms.

President Erdogan was in Kazan, Russia, attending a BRICS intergovernmental summit, when word broke of the attack. He said: “I condemn this heinous terrorist attack and wish mercy on our martyrs.”

He is yet to comment on Bahceli’s offer to Ocalan.

Also notably, Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Ozgur Ozel was on October 23 reported as on a visit to Kurdish-dominated southeastern provinces of Turkey, with the Kurdish issue top of his agenda.

Turkish sources familiar with the attack related to Middle East Eye (MEE) how the two attackers hijacked a taxi, which was driven up to the gates of arms and aerospace producer TUSAS, an employer of 15,000 launched in 1973 that is owned by the Turkish armed forces foundation TSKGV and Turkey’s Defence Industry Agency (SSB).

The attackers were believed to have killed the taxi driver, targeted a TUSAS entrance with a bomb and clashed with a security guard at the scene. One attacker was able to enter the premises as staff ran to bomb shelters.

"The attacker then tried to enter the human resources department and the academy", one source told MEE, adding: "11 hostages were later released after a special forces operation that included a gunfight and explosions." 

By late on October 23, no one had claimed responsibility for the attack.

A Turkish court imposed a broadcast ban on the incident. There were multiple reports also of social media users saying the government was throttling data transfers to stop the spread of photos and video footage of the attack.