TURKEY admitted today to knowing that the masterminds of the 2015 Ankara and Suruc bombings are in zones under its control in Syria ahead of the latest court hearing. 

Ilhami Bali is living in Idlib province, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said, while Deniz Buyukcelebi is believed to be in prison in the Syrian capital Damascus. 

The admission confirms what defence lawyers had previously argued; that the Turkish state had full knowledge of the whereabouts of the suspects. 

The pair were previously declared dead by their wives, who were acquitted of any wrongdoing. 

They are wanted in relation to the bombing of a peace rally that killed 108 people in the Turkish capital Ankara and another bomb attack which killed 33 members of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations in Suruc. 

At the last hearing in October 2021, Yakup Sahin was sentenced to 34 counts of aggravated life imprisonment while a Red Notice was issued for the arrest of Mr Bali and Mr Buyukcelebi. 

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been accused of ordering the Ankara bombing which took place after it lost its parliamentary majority in the 2015 elections. 

It came as the People’s Democratic Party won 80 seats and soon after the collapse of peace talks with the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) aimed at resolving the so-called Kurdish question. 

A European Union intelligence report concluded that the bomb attack, the worst in Turkey’s history, had been carried out by Isis with the collusion of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party.

“Given the circumstances (arriving buses with demonstrators not searched, police almost absent at the huge demonstration), there is reason to believe that in this case, forces within the AKP commissioned the Da’esh operatives,” it stated.

The report suggested that with another election looming in November 2015, “the last thing Erdogan really wants at this juncture is a Kurdish peace.”

Last year leaked reports suggested that the National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) had hosted Mr Bali at the five-star Anadolu Hotel in Ankara, where he is reported to have stayed from March 27 to 29 2016.

Meetings were allegedly held by Turkish spooks with the Isis operative despite an active warrant for his arrest.

It is alleged that his actions were directed by MIT, which worked with Isis to manipulate the political situation during the crucial election period of 2015.

Mr Bali is alleged to have been responsible for the smuggling of jihadists and logistical supplies and the transfer to Turkey of wounded Isis fighters from Syria.