[2] The attacks occurred at 9:45 p.m. local time, 18:45 UTC,[3] on a pedestrian street closed to traffic.

[2] Political analyst Damla Aras said that, "there is a possibility they might be A4, C-4 explosives, which were brought from northern Iraq by the PKK and have been used several times in Turkey.

[7] The blasts were the deadliest to hit Istanbul since a series of bombings in November 2003 that killed over 60 people.

[6] The Istanbul Police indicate that the incident bears the hallmarks of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), possibly in revenge for a series of major operations by the Turkish military on its bases days prior to the incident.

[2] However a senior member of the PKK, Zubeyir Aydar, denied the implication: "The Kurdish liberation movement is not involved in this attack.