The Facts
Hours after a suicide bomber targeted Turkey's interior ministry in Ankara on Sunday, Turkey launched several airstrikes against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. The government said that 20 targets had been destroyed and several Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters had been neutralized.
The PKK claimed responsibility for the bombing in the capital on Sunday morning when a member of the group reportedly blew himself up in a suicide bombing. Police shot and killed a second attacker, and two police officers reportedly were injured in the process.
The Spin
Narrative A
Turkey is committed to eradicating the terrorist threat within and beyond its borders after the PKK's terrorist attack on Sunday. New anti-terrorism operations at the southern borders with Syria and Iraq are imminent. Turkey is devoted to upholding its plan of a 30-kilometer (19-mile)-deep security zone outside its borders with Syria and Iraq, among other things. The assault on the Interior Ministry on Sunday has further strengthened Ankara's resolve.
Narrative B
The incident in Ankara on Sunday should be viewed in the context of Turkey's ongoing battle against Kurdish militants in neighboring Syria and Iraq, where Turkish forces continue to employ chemical weapons that are illegal under all applicable laws of war. Turkey is committing an authoritarian and ruthless oppression of the Kurdish people and all democratic values.
Narrative C
The latest Turkish airstrikes on Iraqi Kurdistan have been rejected by the Iraqi government as a flagrant infringement of national sovereignty. These violations must end. The Iraqi government considers Turkey's repeated attacks to be at odds with the principle of good neighborliness between states and believes that security issues should be resolved diplomatically and through dialogue rather than by military force. All Iraqis oppose Turkey's most recent cross-border transgressions.
