“As Turkey has recently stepped up its” efforts to fight ISIL – many here fear that this attack may be a retaliation by the terrorist organization against the Turkish government.
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Protests have erupted in Istanbul and other cities since the bombing Monday, with demonstrators blaming the government for the attack.
Authorities confirmed, meanwhile, that Monday’s attack was a suicide bombing and identified the bomber as Seyh Abdurrahman Alagoz, a Turkish national. We know that he went to Syria illegally.
The two officers were found dead with bullet wounds to the head in the house they shared, the security sources said on the condition of anonymity. “A punitive action was carried out, in revenge for the massacre in Suruc“, the People’s Defence Forces (HPG) said in a statement on its website on Wednesday, accusing the two officers of cooperating with the ISIS.
It described the attackers as an “Apoist team of self-sacrifice”, in reference to the PKK’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, whose nickname is “Apo” or “uncle”.
The Radikal newspaper quoted what it said was the man’s mother saying he was a former student at Adiyaman university who had worked as a painter with his 25-year old brother before going overseas.
“My son was very young, he would not hurt a fly”, the father told Dogan.
Many of Turkey’s Kurds and opposition supporters suspect President Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling AK Party of covertly backing Islamic State against Kurdish fighters in Syria, something the government has repeatedly denied.
Kobani was attacked again by Islamic State in June and has been a rallying point for Turkey’s Kurdish minority, enraged by what they see as the Turkey’s refusal to intervene in a conflict playing out right on its border.
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The AKP lost its overall majority for the first time in 13 years in a parliamentary election on June 7, seeking a coalition partner to form a government. Protesters also threw fireworks as police officers attempted to disperse a crowd at a separate protest in Istanbul.
