A bomb went off in the heart of Istanbul on Sunday afternoon, killing at least six people and wounding 81 others (50 have so far been discharged from the hospital). The attack occured in the middle of Istiklal street, a popular tourist destination on the city's "European Side," which includes bars, cafes, designer shops and many foreign diplomatic missions. Concerns are growing over a revival in terrorism in one of the Middle East's largest economies, especially with Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections only six months away.
Snapshot: Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the attack was perpetrated by members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which Ankara considers terrorists. A female assailant was said to have detonated the bomb, after CCTV footage showed her sitting on a bench for more than 40 minutes, and then leaving behind a bag just minutes before the explosion. "Attempts to submit Turkey and Turkish people by acts of terrorism are doomed to fail today as they were in the past," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference before his departure for the G20 summit.
The bombing was the first such incident in years in Turkey, which was the target of a series of similar attacks by Islamic State and Kurdish militant groups from 2015 to 2017. Along with a failed military coup attempt in 2016, the events roiled Turkey's import-reliant economy, and threatened to upend its tourism industry which brings in billions of dollars of foreign currency.
Go deeper: Not helping the situation is a serious inflation problem. Turkey's annual inflation rate rose to a record 25-year-high of 85.5% in October, according to official figures, sharply eroding Turks' earnings and savings. President Erdogan believes in an unorthodox approach that higher rates cause inflation, rather than prevent it, with Turkey's central bank slashing rates for the third consecutive month in October.
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Turkish economy on watch as deadly blast rocks Istanbul