Over the past week, several attacks left 12 people dead in the largely Kurdish southeast, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on PKK militants.
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A total of 69 people remained in hospital, with 17 in critical condition.
A family member of a victim of a suicide bombing at a wedding celebration mourn over a coffin during a funeral ceremony in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, Turkey, August 21, 2016.
However, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mehmet Simsek, had earlier said the “barbaric” attack in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, appeared to be a case of suicide bombing, reported The Guardian.
In total, 94 people were injured in the attack including the bride and groom, whom Hurriyet daily said survived the bombing. Other officials say it could have been carried out by Kurdish rebels or the Islamic State group.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed the attack on the Islamic state IS.
It comes amid ongoing struggles between the government and Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, and as the country is still reeling from the aftermath of last month’s failed coup attempt, which the government has blamed on USA -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his followers. The militant group has been losing ground to US-backed Kurdish-led forces, including the key Syrian city of Minbij near the border with Turkey. The Turkish government blamed the PKK.
France, Greece, Azerbaijan, Britain, Sweden, Qatar, Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt were among the countries that offered their condolences and condemned the attack.
Erdogan added that there was “absolutely no difference” between ISIS, Kurdish rebels and the movement behind the US -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, calling them terrorists. Erdogan blames the attempt on Fetullah Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based cleric who has denied any involvement.
In the most recent attacks, 11 people were killed and hundreds injured in three bombings targeting security forces in eastern Turkey last week. All terror groups, the PKK, Daesh, the [Gulen movement] are targeting Turkey.
The collapse of a two-and-a-half-year ceasefire between the Turkish state and the PKK in July last year has seen a return to violence in the long-running conflict.
Following the attack, police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in.
The president told the Turkish people that “the blood spilled by our martyred brothers will not be forgotten”, reports the Journal.
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“We are extremely outraged by this awful tragedy and other terror acts treacherously committed in your country, and consider it important and necessary to carry out a joint, consistent, and resolute struggle against terrorism and all its manifestations”, he said. “They will not yield”, he said.
