[11][12] Censorship monitoring organization Turkey Blocks reported nationwide internet restrictions beginning approximately one hour after the blast pursuant to an administrative order.

In October 2015, a bombing at a peace rally in Ankara against a crackdown on Kurds in the country amidst the renewed PKK rebellion following a breakdown of the ceasefire killed over 100 people.

On 13 February, Turkish shelling of Kurdish positions in response to "incoming Kurdish fire" and against the backdrop of YPG territorial gains in northern Syria[16][17] led, at the request of Russia, to a UN briefing in which the president of the United Nations Security Council Rafael Carreno said that all members during the closed-door meeting expressed their concern at Turkey's actions and called on the country to "comply with international law".

[18][19] Following the UNSC vote and just hours before the bombing, Turkey's President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, referred to PYD as a "terrorist organisation" akin to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), DHKP-C and Al-Nusra Front and stressed that the attacks against PYD's armed wing, YPG, will continue until it stops alleged threats against Turkey's national security.

[20] A car bomb detonated at 18:31 local time, while army buses carrying military personnel were waiting at traffic lights.

[citation needed] Some Turkish news channels showed images of a raging fire that engulfed military vehicles after the explosion, heard several kilometres away.

[43] Oppositional Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-leader Selahattin Demirtaş condemned the bombing as a "merciless attack" and wished "God’s mercy upon those who lost their lives".

[47] In a joint statement, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini and European Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, termed the bombing "a terrible attack".