Government officials said on Wednesday two people had been detained over their Twitter messages regarding the attack.
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Image processed by CodeCarvings Piczard ### FREE Community Edition ### on 2015-10-14 07:48:57Z | http://piczard.com | http://codecarvings.comWounded people wait for help at the site of an explosion in Ankara, Turkey, Saturday, October 10, 2015.
Ministers and pro-government media have suggested the Kurdish rebel group the PKK could be working with Islamic State.
The Turkish government has been at odds with the PKK movement following the collapse of a ceasefire in July. Their suspension comes as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged mistakes were made over the attack.
Turkey is increasingly concerned over threats to its territorial integrity after the United States started withdrawing the Patriot missile systems along its border with Syria this month. Meantime Kurdish forces have been battling ISIS across a swath of northern Iraq and Syria. “Of what dimension? This will emerge after examinations”, he told reporters late on Tuesday. Moreover, the party as a whole benefits from the numerous PKK-linked organisations active in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority cities in the southeast to “get out the vote”. “The investigation continues and is getting deeper”, he added. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government rules that bar officials from speaking to journalists without authorization.
Many of those killed in the attack – which the government says may have been carried out by Islamic State jihadists – were HDP members, including two of its candidates for parliament. CNN has not independently verified the report.
The Turkish interior ministry said the officials fired included the head of police for the greater Ankara area, as well as his intelligence and public security chiefs, amid accusations of security lapses.
CNN’s Tim Lister writes that whoever chose to attack the Ankara rally wants to stoke polarization and violence in Turkey – and destroy an already fragile political dialogue.
Hurriyet reported that CHP had previously filed a motion for the establishment of an inquiry commission into terrorist activity in Turkey, but AKP with the support of the Nationalist Movement Party rejected the motion.
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Most of the victims of the Ankara attack were HDP activists, and the party has said it was specifically targeted.
