The attacks came with Erdogan under huge political pressure as Turkey heads into the November 1 snap elections.
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Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Islamic State, Kurdish militant factions or far-leftist radicals could all have carried out Saturday’s bombing. The Prime Minister has remarked about the terrorist group’s role in the blast, while the government was criticized for the ill safety measures taken.
“This attack will not turn Turkey into a Syria”, he said.
Davutoglu rejected opposition accusations that the attacks were a result of Turkey’s involvement in the conflict in Syria and that the government was dragging the country into the Middle Eastern quagmire.
“We’re close to a name, which points to one group”, he said of the worst attack in Turkey of its kind.
The BBC’s Mark Lowen in Ankara says that critics of the Turkish government believe it is using IS as a scapegoat, and that murky elements of a so-called “deep state” are to blame for the bombings, aiming to shore up support ahead of the elections.
“It was definitely a suicide bombing”. The security operations began in the wake of a Daesh bombing on July 20 in the town of Suruc, in southern Turkey, that killed scores of people.
As the country comes to grips with the deadliest attack on civilians in its modern history, many are questioning how it could have happen – and why.
The activists had planned to rally for an end to the escalating violence between the Turkish authorities and the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Turkish army said on Sunday it killed at least 49 Kurdish rebels in a series of air strikes on the group’s bases in northern Iraq as well as southeastern Diyarbakir province.
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. Police held back the mourners, including the pro-Kurdish party’s co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, insisting that investigators were still working at the site.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bears similarities to a suicide bombing blamed on IS that killed 33 peace activists near the Syrian border in July.
He said the attack was obviously meant to have an impact on Turkey’s elections scheduled in three weeks.
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The White House said in a statement that Obama affirmed that the USA will stand with Turkey in the fight against terrorism.
