Video of PKK member claimed dead in Mersin attack released

A woman who according to Turkish authorities carried out a deadly attack on a police facility on 26 September and died in the incident spoke out to say that she was alive and had not been involved in the attack.

The Turkish Interior Ministry earlier said that one of the two assailants who died in the suicide attack on the police facility in Turkey's southern province of Mersin was identified as Dilsah Ercan, a former Kurdish journalist who had been under arrest for some time in 2012.

Referring to a 10-year-old report by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) that listed Ercan among the jailed journalists in Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused CHP of providing support for "terrorists." Erdogan also said that "CHP is a national security problem."

This was accompanied by a smear campaign in government media which all used the same headline, "The journalist of CHP."

Dilsah Ercan spoke to Firat News Agency, saying she was not involved in the incident.

A video of her was released by ANF on Monday. She said in the video:

"I had been arrested when I was working as a journalist, this is true. Yet, the practices of the AKP--MHP [ruling Justice and Development Party and far right Nationalist Movement Party] fascist regime have totally destroyed the grounds of informing the people in Turkey and Kurdistan about the facts, and of carrying out a legal-democratic struggle for this purpose. This has led many young Kurds to go underground to fight against this fascist regime, and I am one of them."

She added that her organization already provided information about the incident in a statement it earlier made, and that she is "active on-duty."

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) earlier claimed responsibility for the Mersin attack and said the attack was carried out by two women members with noms de guerre Sara and Ruken.