Ankara bombing ‘AK Party game’ says suspect

Erdogan’s autocratic rule, including attacks on press freedom, encouraged the ballot box comeuppance he experienced, but at the heart of it all in Turkey is the ongoing conflict between ethnic Turks and Kurds. And a twin suicide bombing in a Kurdish town near the Syrian border killed thirty two young civic activists in July. The attacks come as Turkey is at risk of losing control of stretches of its border areas that have become highways for IS recruits from North Africa and Europe. Tens of thousands of medical staff, teachers, municipal employees and lawyers struck, while university students boycotted their lessons in a few faculties. In Ankara, the police fired tear gas at mourners laying flowers. Turkey responded by launching airstrikes and other counter-terrorism operations against the groups. The HDP party leader has directly accused the president of complicity in the bombing of the marchers.

In taking over the fight in Syria against ISIS from the United States, the Russians are allying themselves with the Syrian Kurds, who constitute most of the ground forces against ISIS, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin. This would be a challenge for any country that had just experienced a tragedy and was already riven by political and sectarian strife, but in Turkey’s case there is the added variable of the November 1 redo of June’s election. Powerful sections of the Turkish bourgeoisie have withdrawn their support, either from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or from the AKP itself. Government officials at first floated the outlandish claim that the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) could have been involved, but now say that Islamic State is the prime suspect.

Elections in Turkey are generally a rough contact sport-even though they are open and democratic; vote-rigging is rare. The Ankara rally was demanding an end to the violence between the Kurdish separatists factions and the Turkish government.

It was HDP elements and other liberal forces who dominated the march for peace last week and were the chief victims of the savage bombings. This communist terrorist organization has always used big cities as the “last resort” throughout its history. 21 ISIL members who are suspected of perpetuating the bombing have been named and their photos have been released. This is not the first time Turkey has witnessed the battle of Kurds and Islamic State on its soil. FSRN’s Jacob Resneck reports from Diyarbakir.

The major question now is how the Turkish electorate will react to events that seem to be dragging Turkey towards the brink. Another fact: the security failure of not preventing the bombings is plain as day. “And that increases the responsibility for – of the government in an attack such as this one”, he said. “But we aren’t allowed to arrest them before they take action”. The Ankara bombing took place at a rally of the HDP and other leftists. “This is an AK Party game”. Prime Minister Davutoglu said that “Daesh [ISIS] and PKK are organizations with a high likelihood of having an active role in these attacks”. But by attacking pro-Kurdish rally in the capital, IS has demonstrated that it can reach to Turkish heartlands.

It has emerged that the security forces had received intelligence of a bomb plot against the Ankara rally three days in advance, along with a list of 16 possible perpetrators, including Alagoz and Dundar. It was this strong showing by the HDP in the June elections that robbed Erdogan of his expected majority.