Turkey carried out airstrikes against Kurdish militant bases in northern Iraq and Syria, Turkey's Defense Ministry announced early Sunday, a week after an explosion in Istanbul that killed six and wounded more than 80.
The targets were bases used by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG to launch terrorist attacks against Turkey, the ministry said.
"Our goal is to ensure the security of our 85 million citizens and our borders, and to retaliate for any treasonous attacks on our country," Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a statement.
Ankara blames the PKK for the Istanbul blast, a charge the outlaw group denies. According to Reuters, nearly two dozen people have been arrested in connection with the attack in recent days, including five in Bulgaria on Saturday.
The violence in Istanbul is also on course to ignite tensions beyond the immediate region. Turkey is one of two NATO member countries yet to ratify Finland and Sweden's offer to join the defense alliance. Ankara has accused the Nordic countries of harboring Kurdish militants.
Last week's attack in Istanbul "further proves that Turkey wants to voice this concern about terrorism, and it proves in a way that there is a problem inside the country as well," Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka told Bloomberg News on Saturday . It is a dynamic Turkey is building on and of course it has every right to raise this issue during the NATO process.
Haavisto urged Finland not to join forces with Sweden on the Kurdish issue, saying Sweden has a "much larger Kurdish minority" originating from Turkey.
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