The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara as well as its Western allies, has kept up a deadly insurgency for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s.
Regularly targeted by Turkish military operations, the group is also at the heart of a tussle between Sweden and Turkey, which has been blocking Stockholm's entry into NATO since May, accusing it of leniency towards the PKK.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu accused the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Monday of causing the bomb attack that killed at least six people in a busy Istanbul shopping thoroughfare.
"According to our findings, the PKK terrorist organisation is responsible," Soylu said, announcing the arrest of a suspect accused of planting the bomb. (AFP)
(AFP)