Turkish court charges 14 in connection with Ankara attack

Three journalists working for Turkish state-run news agency Anatolia were kidnapped and released on Sunday by members of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey, the agency said. Meanwhile, tensions are escalating between Turkey and Russian Federation, with Ankara accusing Moscow of war crimes, while the YPG Kurds are being shelled by Turkey in Syria.

The PKK’s “Syrian affiliate” – that’s how the PYD, a terrorist group trying to carve out territory near the Turkey-Syria border with the support of Russian Federation and the Syrian regime, is referred to in an official USA counter-terrorism document.

“If 28 Turkish lives have been claimed through a terrorist attack we can only expect them to say any threat to Turkey is a threat to them”. The president maintained that Turkey has rights to conduct ops in Syria.

In an apparent reference to Russian Federation, he said “forces using the PYD” had sought to cause a “massive refugee influx” towards Turkey.

“It has been very clearly determined that this attack was the work of the PKK-YPG”, Davutoglu said.

There were also reports of dozens of Turkish military vehicles crossing into Kurdish northern Syria, with servicemen digging trenches in the area.

Turkey and Russian Federation inched closer to war today after Ankara insisted it will hold Vladimir Putin personally responsible for future terror attacks on its soil, Al-Alam reported.

However, Syria’s government has accused Turkey of artillery shelling inside Syria and said it is an “outrageous violation” of global law.

Also on Friday, Barack Obama urged Erdogan to “show reciprocal restraint” with the Kurdish fighters, according to AFP.

The Protection Units and the Union Party deny accusations from Ankara that they are branches of the Workers’ Party and have rejected having any involvement in the attack. While a peace deal between Ankara and the PKK was in the works a year ago, hostilities resumed in the summer after the Islamic State (IS) group killed 33 pro-Kurdish activists in the southern Turkish city of Suruc.