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Turkey bomb blasts: death toll rises as protesters turn on government
Turkey bomb blasts: death toll rises as protesters turn on government
(about 2 hours later)
A pro-Kurdish Turkish political party whose members were among those killed by a bomb attack in Ankara has raised the death toll to 128, 120 of whom it says have been identified.
Thousands of people have gathered near the scene of Saturday’s twin bomb explosions that killed more than 100 people at a peace rally in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Two suspected suicide bombers struck at a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists near the Turkish capital’s main train station on Saturday, three weeks before an election, shocking a nation beset by conflict between the state and Kurdish militants.
Brief scuffles broke out as police used teargas to prevent people from laying red carnations at the site of the attack, the deadliest terrorist strike on Turkish soil in recent history. The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic party (HDP) said said some members of its delegation sustained injuries.
Thousands of people, many chanting anti-government slogans, gathered near the scene of the bomb blasts on Sunday, mourning the victims of the most deadly attack of its kind on Turkish soil.
Later, a group of about 70 people was allowed to enter the cordoned-off area in front of the Ankara’s main train station.
Turkish investigators have so far failed to identify the perpetrators of the attack on the pro-Kurdish peace rally. The Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, exposing a mosaic of domestic political perils, said Islamic State, Kurdish or far-left militants could have carried out the bombing. Experts have said it is unlikely leftwing groups were behind the attack in which scores of others were also injured.
Mourners shouted anti-government slogans, angrily denouncing the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as a “murderer” and a “thief”. Many blame his Justice and Development (AK) party for security failures at Saturday’s peace march.
Scuffles broke out in the Turkish capital as police used teargas to prevent pro-Kurdish politicians and other mourners from laying carnations at the site of the two suspected suicide bombings.
According to the HDP, the number of people killed in the bombing stands at 128, all but eight of whom have been identified and their names published by the HDP’s crisis desk.
Police held back the mourners, including the co-leaders of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, insisting that investigators were still working at the site. A group of about 70 mourners were eventually allowed to enter the cordoned off area outside the main train station on Sunday to briefly pay their respects to the victims.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, and the government has denied any part in it. The prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, cited the political upheaval in both Turkey and Syria and said the attack could have been carried out by Islamic State, Kurdish militants or radical leftist groups.
The group of mourners then began to march toward a central square in Ankara, chanting slogans against the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whom many hold responsible for the spiralling violence.
Security analysts have pointed out the similarities to a suicide bomb attack in the Turkish border town of Suruç that killed 33 Kurdish and Turkish activists in July, which the Turkish government blamed on Isis.
“Murderer Erdoğan”, “murderer police”, the crowd chanted in Sıhhiye square, as riot police backed by water cannon blocked a main highway leading to the district where parliament and government buildings are located.
The government announced it had appointed two chief civil inspectors and two chief police inspectors to investigate the Ankara attack. According to the pro-government daily Yeni Safak, one of the suicide bombers might have been identified as a man aged between 25 and 30, but no further details have yet been made public.
The government denies any suggestion of involvement. It has appointed two chief civil inspectors and two chief police inspectors to investigate the blasts.
The two explosions occurred in an interval of a few seconds near the central train station on Saturday morning as thousands started to gather for a peace march, which was organised by several leftwing groups including labour unions and the HDP to call for an end to the escalating violence between the Turkish government and the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s party (PKK).
One of the bombers had been identified as a male aged 25-30 after analysing bodies at the scene and taking fingerprints, the pro-government Yeni Safak said.
Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the HDP, held the government responsible for the attack and said his party, seen as one of the main targets, would not seek revenge but would ask for justice.
There were no claims of responsibility for the attack, which came as external threats mount for Turkey, a Nato member, with increased fighting across its border with Syria and incursions by Russian warplanes on its airspace over the last week.
The government accused the Kurdish politician of exploiting the pain of others for electoral gain. On Sunday, at the memorial rally, Demirtas harshly rebuffed these claims.
A Turkish news agency reported on Sunday that police had detained 14 suspected Isis members in the central Turkish city of Konya, but it was not clear if the detentions were related to the twin blasts in Ankara.
“Who are you to keep threatening us? We will not allow you to kill us like this, day after day. We are the ones who are dying. We are the police, the soldiers, we are the Kurds and the Turks who are dying. Your children are not the ones that are killed,” he said. “That is why we are not the ones who should be held responsible, but you are.”
Newspaper headlines reflected the mixture of grief and anger. “We are in mourning for peace,” said the frontpage headline in the secularist Cumhuriyet newspaper as three days of national mourning declared by the prime minister got under way. Other papers voiced public anger over the attack.
The bomb attack in Ankara came three months after the breakdown of a mutual ceasefire between the Turkish government and the PKK. Hundreds of people have been killed in the escalating violence since then.
“Scum attacked in Ankara,” said the Haberturk newspaper. “The goal is to divide the nation,” said the pro-government Star.
Hours after the Ankara bombing, the PKK announced an expected unilateral ceasefire, in order to avoid acts that could obstruct a “fair and just election” on 1 November. The snap vote was called after the government failed to form a coalition following national elections in June.
Turkey will hold a parliamentary election on 1 November as planned, a senior government official told Reuters. “Postponing the elections as a result of the attack is not on the table at all, even as an option.
The Turkish government opted to snub the offer of calm. On Saturday night, Turkish fighter jets launched airstrikes against PKK positions in Turkey and northern Iraq. A statement by the general chief of staff said 49 militants were killed and shelters and gun positions were destroyed. Security operations were also reported from the predominantly Kurdish province of Diyarbakir.
“Because of the rising risks, the security at election rallies, which is already being increased, will be raised further. The election will be held in a secure way.”
Davutoğlu’s office named 52 of the victims overnight and said postmortems were continuing. It said 246 wounded people were still being treated, 48 of them in intensive care. “The necessary work is being conducted to identify those behind the attack and quickly bring them to justice,” the statement said.
Relatives and friends of the casualties waited anxiously on Sunday morning outside the hospitals where the wounded were being treated.
The two blasts happened seconds apart on Saturday morning as crowds, including HDP activists, leftists, labour unions and other civic groups, gathered for a march to protest over the deaths of hundreds since conflict resumed between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) in the mainly Kurdish south-east.
Hours after the bombing, the PKK, as widely expected, ordered its fighters to halt operations in Turkey unless they faced attack. The Turkish military said on Sunday it had carried out airstrikes on PKK targets in south-east Turkey and northern Iraq.
