Yesterday, dual bombings at a peace rally in Turkey’s capital Ankara killed 95 people and injured 246 more. The rally was organized by trade unions and civic associations, including the Turkish Medical Association, to protest against the climbing violence in the southeast between Turkish security forces and the PKK, a Kurdish guerrilla group widely known in Turkey as a terrorist organization.
The tension in the southeast has escalated into a civil war in the Kurdish region of the country, with at least 20 civilians killed early last month under military-imposed curfew in a small town in the Kurdish city of Şırnak. The violence reached extraordinary levels last week when a 24-year-old Kurdish man, Hacı Birlik, was shot dead by the Turkish military forces; his body was tied up behind an armed vehicle and dragged on the streets of Şırnak.
The peace rally was organized precisely in opposition to this violence. Critics accuse Erdoğan and the government of punishing the southeast for the high voters turnout at the June elections for the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party, which pushed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AKP party out of the majority and disrupted Erdoğan’s plans to change the constitution to a presidential system.
The explosion occurred at 10 a.m. in Ankara’s central Sıhhıye Square near the main train station. Right after the explosion, riot police entered the scene with water cannons targeting the civilians at the rally and disrupted first aid attempts to stabilize hundreds of injured people. Tension rose when riot police lined up in front of ambulances, blocking their entry to help the injured. Some protesters clashed with the police, eventually pushing them back to allow ambulances to reach the ones in need of urgent care.
The government enforced a news blackout immediately after the explosion. Impromptu protests happened in Istanbul condemning the attacks and criticizing the media censorship. A government official said that the purpose of the censorship was to prevent panic in Turkey.
Similar attacks have happened over the past few months in Turkey. One at an HDP rally in Diyarbakır, a major Kurdish city, just days before the June elections killed two people. Another one took place in July in Suruç and killed 32 young activists who were on their way to build a school in the Kurdish city of Kobane, Syria.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has declared a three-day mourning period for the country. The Interior Minister Selami Altınok announced that there was no security failure on the state’s part for the deadliest terror attack in contemporary Turkish history. In the meantime, the Mayor of Ankara, Melih Gökçek, who had been silent for 14 hours after the attack, blamed the attacks on the PKK and also accused the PKK of the Diyarbakır bombing, arguing that it was staged to rally HDP votes in advance of the June elections. HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş condemned the allegations against HDP and deemed the government responsible for the attack.
No organization has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. KCK, the political administrative branch of the PKK, announced yesterday that the PKK would no longer orchestrate attacks unless attacked first. In a press release after the bombing, the KCK rejected responsibility for the attack, instead pointing fingers at President Erdoğan. A Twitter account known to be affiliated with ISIS tweeted about the attack and congratulated those who executed it, but did not claim responsibility.
Image source: Flickr // Nezih Durmazlar