Turkish PM blames Ankara bombing on Islamic State

A newspaper close to the Turkish government says authorities investigating the twin suicide bombings at a rally promoting peace with the Kurdish were focusing on the Islamic State group, comparing DNA samples of suspected bombers with those obtained from families of extremists they suspect could have carried out the attacks.

Seventeen rebels from the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed during air raids in the southeastern province of Hakkari, the Turkish military said Monday.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday’s attack, the worst of its kind on Turkish soil, was meant to influence the outcome of November polls Erdogan hopes will restore a majority the ruling AK party lost in June.

Hundreds of people have marched in the Turkish capital of Ankara to condemn the suicide bombings that killed 97 people and wounded hundreds at a peace rally. The PM added that Turkey will arrange meetings with Russian Federation and Iran on a political solution to the crisis in Syria but will not take any stance that legitimizes the Assad-regime. “Follow instructions given by local security forces (such as no-go zones) and stay in touch with your tour operator”.

The Paris demonstration echoed an anti-government rally in Ankara, where many believe Erdogan is responsible for the spiraling violence that has plagued Turkey since the summer. It was not clear, however, if any of the arrests were linked to the peace rally bombings.

The statement said that the army had confiscated an arsenal of weapons as well as organizational documents.

In his first reaction to the violence, Turkey’s leading writer Orhan Pamuk in an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica warned of sectarian conflict and blamed Erdogan for the insecurity.

The blast occurred just outside of the main railway station in the Turkish capital.

The Foreign Office said British visitors to Turkey should avoid similar events.

Selahattin Demirtas told a group of mourners of Sunday: “The state which gets information about the bird that flies and every flap of its wing was not able to prevent a massacre in the heart of Ankara“.

Those taking part in Saturday’s rally included the pro-Kurdish HDP, or Peoples’ Democratic Party, which said on Twitter that two of its parliamentary candidates died in the blasts.

“The event exposes huge flaws in the Turkish security apparatus that has been cracking down on the PKK for months, but neglected an equally serious and even more unpredictable threat such as ISIS”, Cristian Maggio, head of Emerging Markets Research at TD Securities in London, said, using an alternative name for Islamic State.

The government has already dismissed the ceasefire declaration as an election gambit meant to bolster the pro-Kurdish HDP, saying the militants must disarm and leave Turkey.

Turkey is vulnerable to infiltration by Islamic State, which holds swathes of Syrian land abutting Turkey where a few two million refugees live.