A suicide bombing shook the center of the Turkish capital Ankara this Sunday. a few hours before the opening of the new parliamentary session that will ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that terrorists “will never achieve their objectives” after the attack near the Turkish parliament that injured two police officers.

“The madmen who threaten the peace and security of the citizens will never achieve their objectivesErdogan said.

Parliament kept its program “unchanged”, he said AFP his spokesman.

The Interior Ministry indicated that two police officers were injured in the attack carried out by “two terrorists”, one of whom “self-detonated” and the other “was neutralized”.

The officers’ lives are not in danger, he added.

The attack, which went unclaimed, took place in an area where numerous ministries and the Turkish parliament are located.

“Two terrorists arrived in a vehicle at around 9:30 am (06:30 GMT) in front of the entrance door of the Directorate General of Security of our Ministry of the Interior and carried out a bomb attack,” the Interior Minister explained. Ali Yerlikaya.

The explosion was heard several kilometers away.

Video recorded by a security camera shows a gray vehicle slowly parking in front of police headquarters. One of the attackers gets out of the car and approaches with a gun in his hand before setting himself on fire in front of the police station on duty.

A second man exits the vehicle but disappears from the footage, engulfed by the smoke and dust generated by the explosion.

Ankara police announced they were carrying out “controlled explosions” of “suspicious packages” for fear of new attacks, and asked residents to remain calm.

Sweden’s accession to NATO

The private television network NTV reported shootings in the areawhich was completely cordoned off and where numerous police vehicles and ambulances were deployed.

The Turkish parliament must ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO during this parliamentary session.

Hungary and Turkey lifted their vetoes against Sweden’s entry into the military alliance in July, but have been slow to ratify their accession.

Erdogan has been pressuring Sweden for months to take action against desecrations of the Koran, which have strained relations between the two countries.

Finland became NATO’s 31st member in Aprilafter three decades of military non-alignment and in the middle of the Ukrainian war.

The European Union has ‘strongly condemned’ the attack.

The Turkish capital Ankara has been the scene of numerous violent attacks, especially in the years 2015 and 2016, many of which were claimed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or the Islamic State group.

The PKK, which has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984, is on the blacklist of terrorist groups of Ankara and its Western allies.

Kurdish militants linked to the PKK control most of northeastern Syria.

Erdogan warns the EU

“Turkey no longer expects anything from the European Union, which has kept us waiting at the door for forty yearsTurkish President Recepp Tayyip Erdogan said this on Sunday.

“We have fulfilled all the promises we made to the EU, but they have fulfilled almost none of theirs,” Erdogan said at the opening session of parliament.

He added that he “will not tolerate any new demands or conditions on the accession process” from Turkey.

“If the EU intends to end the accession process that only exists on paper, that will be its decisionhe added.

The president’s anger comes after the European Court of Human Rights reprimanded Turkey for convicting a man of membership of an armed terrorist organization based on the simple use of the encrypted messaging app ByLock.

ByLock is considered by the Turkish government to be the communications tool of choice for those believed to be responsible for the failed 2016 coup, which left 250 dead and led to arrests and purges unprecedented in Turkish history.

The Turkish government attributed the failed coup to the Fetö organization (acronym used to name the movement of the preacher Fethullah Gülen).

“Turkey will not back down in its fight against this gang of traitors,” Erdogan said. (JO)