2012 Gaziantep bombing

On 20 August 2012, a bomb exploded at approximately 19:45 local time near the Karşıyaka police station in the Şehitkamil district of Gaziantep, Turkey. The attack occurred on the second day of the three-day "Şeker Bayramı" (Eid-ul-Fitr) celebrations marking the end of Ramadan, in one of the city's most crowded areas. The explosive device was planted in a truck and remotely detonated, with the police station believed to be the intended target.

The blast caused significant secondary damage: two public buses caught fire, which increased the number of casualties, and many parked cars and nearby shops were badly damaged.

The attack killed eight people outright. A twelve-year-old girl who was wounded in the blast died of her injuries the following day. Four of those killed were children. Casualty figures for the wounded varied across reports: Turkish newspaper Hürriyet reported 66 people injured, while Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay later stated the number of wounded was 69. Some of the injured were police officers. Seventeen of the wounded were hospitalized, four of them in critical condition.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack. Turkish officials initially believed the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was responsible. However, on 21 August 2012, the Fırat News agency reported that the PKK had denied involvement and instead attributed the attack to another Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK). On the same day, four people were detained in Şanlıurfa and brought to Gaziantep for questioning in connection with the bombing. Turkish authorities also investigated whether foreign countries, including Iran, had any role in the attack.

The bombing drew condemnation from Turkish and international officials. Turkish President Abdullah Gül expressed condolences and condemned the attack, emphasizing that the deaths of children showed terrorism to be "a crime against humanity." The European Union, the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Italy, Spain, the United States, and the Turkic Council all condemned the attack as an act of terrorism and offered condolences to victims' families. Iranian parliamentary spokesperson Hossein Nakavi offered a different response, suggesting Turkey risked further attacks due to its involvement in Syria and accusing Turkey of supporting terrorist groups there, including al-Qaeda.

As of available reporting, no individual or group has been definitively confirmed as responsible for the attack, and the case remains associated with unresolved questions about which organization carried it out.