Turkey detains 2 for tweets suggesting knowledge of blasts

At least 97 people were killed on Saturday at a peace rally near the train station and so far no suspects have been arrested, leaving the population on edge.

Several labor unions embarked on a two-day strike starting Monday to denounce the attacks.

Erdogan has kept silent and out of the public eye since issuing a written statement following the bombings.

KENYON: Standing nearby, 40-year-old Ece Tokgoz says it doesn’t make sense that the Kurdish militants from the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, were behind the attack.

“Looking at how the incident took place, we are probing Daesh as our first priority”, Davutoglu told NTV television, using an alternative Arabic acronym for IS. “It was definitely a suicide bombing…DNA tests are being conducted. We’re close to a name, which points to one group”.

“There is certain intelligence about a few preparations that were made by (terrorists) entering our country and carrying out various acts – and that they originated from Syria”, Erdogan said.

No one has claimed responsibility, but the attack bears similarities to a suicide bombing in July that killed 33 Turkish and Kurdish peace activists near the southern town of Suruc, which borders Syria.

PKK members have been fighting a separatist battle against the Turkish government for more than 30 years.

The main opposition group, the Republican People’s Party, has also said it would not hold any rallies until October 14, according to the English-language Hurriyet newspaper. Subsequently the AKP was not able to put together a working parliamentary coalition, and Erdogan called for a new election on November 1. However, a recent survey by Metropoll found that the AKP would only increase its vote by 1 percent-and that was before the suicide bombing. “They’re the ones who have plunged Turkey into a war because they couldn’t get their 400 MPs”.

Erdoğan also canceled three days of appointments as his nation grieved, but by late Sunday had not yet addressed the public.

“The AK Party has suspended its rallies”. The government has also banned the publication of images of the aftermath of the attack. “It reminds us of the Suruc explosion”. A few of the thousands who turned out chanted, “Murderer state, you will be held accountable!”

Director of Ankara Provincial Security Directorate Kadri Kartal, as well as heads of the security and intelligence departments, were removed for a full probe into the deadliest suicide bombings in Ankara on Saturday, the statement said. We are the Kurds.

So could the PKK have been behind Saturday’s attack?

But the Turkish army kept up its campaign with more air raids on southeast Turkey and northern Iraq over the weekend, killing 49 suspected militants. “And the rallies after Friday will not be organised as electoral rallies but they will be rallies against terrorism, aiming to cement brotherhood and unity”.

Erdogan’s facilitation of the “lesser evil” ISIS – against Kurdish separatism and Bashar al-Assad – within Turkish geopolitical and territorial jurisdiction, has now made the state’s capital vulnerable to ISIS attacks. “Especially in the 1970s the streets of my city (Istanbul) witnessed a real conflict between people of the left and those of the right”, said Pamuk. Russia insisted the violation was accidental, and Turkey responded by threatening to shoot down future Russian planes.