Turks rally to honour Ankara bombing victims

Tensions in Turkey escalated in mid-summer when the country launched a military campaign against PKK in northern Iraq, after the militant group claimed responsibility for the murders of two Turkish police officers who they claim had aligned themselves with Islamic State.

Despite this, much of the public anger has been directed towards the Turkish government, with many accusing it of being at least negligent in stopping the attackers and at worst complicit with them. A few analysts are now fearing that Turkey has become the battleground in a growing war between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK and Islamic State.

The attack has been called “Turkey’s 9/11”, however, while the tragedy on 9/11 unified America, Saturday’s bombing has only deepened the divide between Turkey’s sectarian factions, with a few citizens blaming their own government for the tragedy. Tens of thousands of medical staff, teachers, municipal employees and lawyers struck, while university students boycotted their lessons in a few faculties.

Mass protests, boycotts and strikes sparked by the October 10 double suicide bombing targeting a peace march in Ankara have spread across Turkey. There is only one explanation: “[the government] not seeing ISIS as a terrorist organization”. 21 ISIL members who are suspected of perpetuating the bombing have been named and their photos have been released. “About 10,000 participated in the funeral ceremony in Izmir province for two women killed in the blast”, Cafer Alp, an electrician and member of the DISK union who attended the October. 12 event, told the Militant.

“The biggest reason for the disaster that is being experienced today is the fact that the explosions that took place both in Diyarbakır and Suruc had various similarities with the explosions at the Ankara Railway Station and no lesson has been drawn from these incidents”, the CHP said in its motion, asking for “far-reaching handling of the explosions in Diyarbakır, Suruc and Ankara in connection with each other”.

The Holy Father also said there was sorrow because the attackers struck defenceless people who were demonstrating for peace. In elections last June, the HDP broke through to win 80 legislative seats.

“I am not a doctor but I must help people”, she said.

The White House says the leaders agreed on the urgent need to stop PKK attacks in Turkey. Prime Minister Davutoglu said that “Daesh [ISIS] and PKK are organizations with a high likelihood of having an active role in these attacks”. In addition, the government has provided no explanation for why it believes the PKK is involved, as the bombing targeted a pro-Kurdish peace rally largely attended by PKK sympathizers. Accordingly, a third of the AKP’s new 50-seat central governing board, which will take the AKP into elections on 1 November, has close personal or business ties to Erdogan. The bombers nearly certainly come from Isis, but government officials have hinted that the PKK may be responsible though without producing any evidence.