“Suicide bombers go free, but you land in jail if you throw an egg”.
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Twin bombs rocked the Turkish capital Ankara on October 10, killing close to 100 civilians and injuring over 250 attending a peace rally. “We’ve written this over and over”, she said. For Turkey, the PKK was a terrorist organization and the party’s political branch was labeled as part of the terrorist network as well. Turkey’s inaction following incursions by Russian fighter jets into its airspace must be judged in this light. Since then, Turkish warplanes have conducted far more airstrikes against Kurdish rebels than against ISIS positions. Yesterday, Prime Minister Davutoğlu claimed that there is a secret agreement between Assad, ISIS, and the PKK to eliminate all anti-Assad forces and share the Syrian border with Turkey.
But critics say relations between Ankara and ISIS are much cozier that Davutoglu’s statement suggests.
Yesterday, Turkey summoned the U.S. ambassador in Ankara to express concerns at a reported transfer of 120 tons of weapons and ammunition to the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is an ally of the PKK. Anger is continuing over the incident in Turkey, and hundreds of people chanted anti-government slogans as they marched towards a mosque in an Istanbul suburb today for the funeral of several victims of the bombings.
Add up everything that’s happened and Turkey is “so deeply polarized” after 13 years of Erdogan rule that the country is “about to come apart at the seams”, analyst Soner Cagaptay told The New York Times.
The blasts took place near the city’s central train station. Visitors described ISIS flag on the walls.
Ankara’s chief prosecutor said Friday another civilian died at a hospital, bringing the death toll to 102. Ankara attacks follow a July 20 bombing in the town of Suruc that was linked to Syria’s civil war and blamed on a suicide bomber with ties to IS. He implored them to stand strong at this hard time. Authorities did not act.
One of the brothers’ more high-profile connections was Orhan Gonder, charged with bombing a rally of the HDP in Diyarbakir on June 5.
“It never occurred to us he would go and join Islamic State, frankly”.
President Erdogan has acknowledged failures by police and intelligence services, and three high-ranking officers of police in Ankara have been suspended. Sitting next to Altinok, the minister of justice smiled when a journalist asked whether any of the ministers were intending to resign over this tragedy.
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He said Turkish law enforcement agencies responded to an enquiry in this regard sent by the consulate: “The response cleared everything”. But there have not been any arrests. The Turkish police, which is notorious for its zero-tolerance policy and brutality against any dissidents who try to stage protests, was oddly absent at the site of the bombing before the ISIL attack.
