PKK member confesses plot to attack Anews building

A captured member of the PKK terrorist group confessed to prosecutors that the group plotted to carry out an attack targeting the headquarters of Turkuvaz Medya, where Anews offices are also located. The suspect said they cancelled the "sacrifice" attack, a term used by the group to describe suicide attacks, upon seeing heavy security around the building in Istanbul, believing they would not cause as many casualties as they wanted.

An indictment against İhsan Köçeroğlu, who was recently captured in operations against the terrorist group, includes his testimony and confessions he gave in exchange for a reduction in his sentence. Köçeroğlu said Erhan Porsipi, a senior leader in the PKK, instructed him to plan an attack on Turkuvaz Medya headquarters in Istanbul's Beşiktaş district. He said he was accompanied by Mehmet Reşat Tekin, another PKK member, in planning the attack.

"I was doing reconnaissance for the attack when I saw a police patrol car parked outside and two armed security guards. I thought it would be difficult to carry out an armed attack and cancelled it," he said in his confession. Köçeroğlu is among eight suspects who will be tried by a court in Istanbul on terror charges in the coming days. Collaborating with authorities, he revealed the locations of rifles and explosives that the terrorist group hid in several locations in Istanbul to use in planned attacks. In a shop he run in the city's Fatih district, hand grenades and a pistol were found. The indictment says the PKK "cell" that instructed Köçeroğlu was also behind the terror attack that killed 44 people outside Vodafone Park, a stadium located a few kilometers from the Anews offices.