NEW DELHI, Oct 23: At least four persons were killed and 14 others wounded in a terror attack on the headquarters of a top Turkish defence firm near Ankara, Turkish officials said on Wednesday.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was holding talks in Russia with Vladimir Putin at the time, confirmed the toll, and condemned what he said was a “heinous terrorist attack” at state-run Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) with the Russian leader expressing his condolences over the attack.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said three of the injured were in critical condition and that two attackers “a woman and a man, have been neutralised.” He said work was under way to determine their identities but did not say whether there were any other attackers still at large.
Local media broadcast footage showing clouds of smoke and a large fire raging at the site in Kahramankazan, a small town some 40 km north of Ankara. The incident took place around 4 p.m. (6.30 p.m. IST).
Media outlets, which had been showing live footage from the scene were forced to halt their broadcasts after Turkiye’s media watchdog ordered a blackout of images from the site but some local televisions channel said there was an ongoing “hostage situation” without giving further details.
There was no immediate claim for the attack but the Justice Minister said an investigation had been opened. Some private local television network spoke of a suicide attack, saying “a group of terrorists” had burst into TAI’s headquarters and one of them blew themselves up.
According to TAI’s website, the state-run company, which is also a major arms producer, employs 15,500 people and has a vast production site covering an area of 5 million sq. metre.
NATO chief Mark Rutte also offered the alliance’s backing to member state Turkiye in a call with Mr Erdogan following the attack. “I just spoke with (President) Erdogan about the terror attack in Ankara. My message was clear: NATO stands with Turkiye,” Mr Rutte wrote on X, using the country’s official Turkish name.
The Turkish city of Istanbul is currently hosting a major trade fair for the defence and aerospace industries at the moment, visited this week by Ukraine’s top diplomat. Turkey’s defence sector, which is known for its Bayraktar drones, accounts for some 80% of the nation’s export revenues.
Contracts worth $10.2 billion were signed in 2023, according to Mr Haluk Gorgun, head of Turkiye’s state Defence Industry Agency (SSB). In the first eight months of this year, defence export revenues reached $3.7 billion, up nearly 10% from same period a year earlier, Mr Gorgun said.
(Manas Dasgupta)