Twin blasts in Turkish capital
Explosions in Ankara take place two days before expected ceasefire call by jailed Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Two grenades have exploded outside Turkey’s justice ministry, and the offices of the ruling AK Party has been hit by a light anti-tank weapon, in the Turkish capital of Ankara, days before an expected ceasefire with Kurdish rebels.
Turkish television stations on Tuesday showed footage of police cordoning off streets and ambulances arriving.
Turkish Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said one person was slightly injured in the ministry attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The attacks occurred two days before an expected ceasefire call by jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been in talks with state officials to try to end a three-decade conflict that has killed some 40,000 people.
“Our decisiveness will continue,” AK Party spokesman Huseyin Celik told a hastily assembled news conference. “Such turbulence cannot push us from our path.”
The ceasefire call, expected to coincide with the Kurdish New Year on Thursday, could also include a command to Ocalan’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters to withdraw from Turkey to their bases in northern Iraq.
Ocalan began talks with state officials last October. Truces have been agreed and failed before in the war.
The PKK, deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and European Union, originally demanded full
independence for a Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey, but has moderated its goals to broader political and cultural autonomy.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has made a number of concessions on cultural and language rights as part of his
efforts to forge a settlement.