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People carry the coffins of Suruç bombing victims through Gaziantep. Photo: Bülent
Kılıç /AFP
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NEWS
/ TURKEY
39
people have been killed in Turkey
during the past week as a result of attacks by Daesh (ISIL) and the PKK,
including 32 murdered by a suicide bomber in Suruç.
The
bloody developments have resulted in mass arrests, with some 590 suspected
terrorists taken into custody since Thursday. It’s also prompted the Turkish
government to change tact in Syria.
Since Friday, Turkish jets have been bombing the two terror groups’ strongholds
in Iraq and Syria, while
the Americans have been given the green light to use the İncirlik airbase for
their air strikes.
Suruç activists planning to build a playground & day centre when bomber struck, killing 32 & wounding 104
On
Monday 20 July, 32 people were killed and 104 wounded when a Daesh operative
detonated his bombs in the Amara Cultural Centre in Suruç where political
activists were holding a press briefing. The town is next to the Syrian border
in southeast Turkey
and had become home to hundreds of Syrian refugees from neighbouring Kobane.
The
victims of the blast, mainly university-aged who were members of Turkey’s
Federation of Socialist Youth Associations, had come together from different
parts of the country with the intention of crossing the border from Suruç to
Kobane to help rebuild the town recently liberated from Daesh by Kurdish
forces. Their first project was to be a children’s playground and day centre
with a library.
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30 of the 32 Suruç victims,
most were university students
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Among
the victims was Hatice Ezgi Saadet, a History of Arts student at Mimar Sinan
University. 18-year-old Okan
Pirinç, Süleyman Aksu, an English teacher from Yüksekova, 22-year Van
University student Yunus Emre Şen, 65-year-old HDP activist Cemil Yıldız, Ferdane
Kılıç, who was on HDP’s Executive Committee, and her son Nartan Kılıç, and Ismet
Şeker whose son Mustafa Can Şeker had been killed fighting against Daesh forces
in Kobane.
The
full list of Suruç victims can be seen here:
Both Suruç & Diyarbakır bombers from Adıyaman
The
Turkish authorities identified the Suruç suicide bomber as Şeyh Abdurrahman
Alagöz, a 20-year-old student from the neighbouring southeast province of Adıyaman.
The university student, an ethnic Kurd, was reported missing by his family last
year who feared he was being groomed by Daesh militants.
Şeyh
Abdurrahman disappeared along with his older brother Yusuf, who had run a tea
shop in their home town where it is believed Daesh sympathisers regularly met.
The Turkish security forces tracked the brothers down to Syria in
January 2015. According to news reports in Turkish daily Hürriyet, they had
joined Daesh forces there where they underwent training in bomb-making before
illegally crossing back into Turkey.
The
pair are believed to be from the same group as Orhan Gönder, who was arrested last
month on suspicion of planting two bombs at HDP’s big Diyarbakır pre-election rally on 5th
June, which killed four people and wounded 404 people. 20-year-old Gönder is
also from Adıyaman and ethnically Kurdish, although his family are practicing Alevis,
so his joining Daesh, whose members follow an extreme and distorted form of
Sunni Islam, is surprising.
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Daesh militant Orhan
Gönder arrested for bombing HDP’s Diyarbakır rally in June that killed 4 &
wounded over 400
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Following
the Suruç bombing, the Turkish government has stepped up border security with Syria. On
Thursday, Turkish troops exchanged fire with Daesh in Kilis during which
Sergeant Mehmet Yalçın Nane was shot dead, while two Turkish soldiers were
injured.
Turkish
government criticised
The
events on Monday have shocked Turkey
and many, including the main opposition party, CHP, have criticised the Turkish
government for not declaring a national day of mourning. The fact that the government
had announced three days of mourning when Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah died
in January, while ignoring the mass loss of live of its own citizens has
incensed many.
They
are also angry at the government’s seeming indifference to the growing threat
posed by Daesh in Turkey,
where young people are being recruited with ease by the jihadists.
A
day before the Suruç bombing, on the final day of Ramazan Bayramı, Turkish media reported that around 1,000 Turkish supporters
of the radical Islamist group had gathered at a picnic site in Ömerli, a
neighbourhood in Istanbul,
to perform prayers. The event was led by Halis Bayancuk, also known as Abu
Hanzala, who is believed to run the Al Qaeda network Turkey. After prayers, he allegedly
called on supporters to engage in war to bring about Sharia Law in Turkey.
Bayancuk
was arrested last year following wiretapped conversations where he was heard to
say after Syria’s fall to
Daesh, ‘Istanbul would be next’, but he was
released without charge.
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Halis
Bayancuk one of 590 people arrested following crackdown by
authorities on militant groups
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Some
commentators have gone further, accusing the Turkish authorities of not only
failing to check Daesh in Turkey, but also of actively supporting them as part
of Turkey’s foreign policy to topple Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. Global public
opinion demands the elimination of Daesh following the release of harrowing
videos and eye-witness accounts detailing their barbarism. Yet in the eyes of
the Turkish government, Assad remains the primary force of evil in the region.
In
January 2014, Turkish gendarmeries stopped trucks operated by Turkey’s intelligence services MİT in Adana, near the Syrian
border. While MİT had claimed the convoy was carrying aid to Turkmen refugees,
the gendarmeries uncovered weapons which they suspected were being sent to
opposition groups in Syria,
including al-Qaeda-affiliated groups. The government immediately imposed a
media blackout on the discovery and removed the prosecutor overseeing the investigation,
while blocking any further efforts to investigate the incident.
Kobane
the source of tensions in Turkey
since 2014
The
events in Kobane are offered as further “proof” by critics of the Turkish
government’s supposed pro-Daesh, anti-Kurdish agenda. The border town has been
the scene of fierce fighting since 2014, as Kurdish guerrilla forces tried to save
Syrian Kurds from the onslaught of the blood-lusting Islamists.
In a single fortnight last October, some 150,000
Syrian civilians made their way to refugee camps Turkey in to escape Daesh’s deadly
advances in Kobane. Many shared graphic details about the brutal killings and
rape inflicted on them. While the world watched and the international community
pressed Ankara to
act, the Turkish authorities refused to engage in military combat with Daesh or
to create a safe corridor to enable Turkish Kurds to join their Syrian brethren
in the desperate battle to keep the jihadist forces at bay.
Both
the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu vehemently
refute all accusations about them being pro-Daesh and anti-Kurdish.
Following
Monday’s bombing, Davutoğlu told reporters in Suruç that, "Turkey
and AK Party governments have never had any direct or indirect links with any
terrorist group and have never showed tolerance to any terrorist group."
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PM Ahmet Davutoğlu criticised for his handling of the growing
threat from Daesh
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The reassurances by the government have not been
enough to appease the tensions between AKP loyalists and those furious over the
government’s policies in Syria.
Last year, some 40 people were killed as nationalist Kurds clashed with Sunni
Kurds in 35 provinces. There are fears that the Suruç bombing and the new spate of
killings by the PKK this week could spawn new bloody clashes between the opposing
groups.
PKK
resumes armed campaign in Turkey, killing 6 in a week
On
12 July, the armed wing of the PKK, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, announced
that their ceasefire was over. Following a call from its jailed leader Abdullah
Öcalan, the PKK had put down their arms at the end of 2012 to help with the
peace process that was under way between the government and nationalist Kurdish
MPs in the Turkish Parliament.
With
the peace process now stalled and the Turkish government reverting to a more
nationalist position in the run-up to June’s General Election, coupled with the
events in Kobane, the ending of the ceasefire was anticipated.
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PKK victim Corporal Müsellim Ünal, gunned down in Adıyaman
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A
week after its announcement, the PKK claimed its first victim when it gunned
down Corporal Müsellim Ünal in Adıyaman.
Two
days later, the PKK admitted to killing two Turkish police officers, Okan Acar
and Feyyaz Yumuşak, who were both shot in their head at the apartment they
shared in Ceylanpınar, in Şanlıurfa province. The PKK accused the officers of
collaborating with Daesh.
The
following day police officer Tansu Aydın was shot by the PKK while performing
traffic duties in Diyarbakır.
On
Thursday, a local police station in Bismil, Diyarbakır, was fire-bombed, injuring seven
officers. Separately two officers patrolling in a water cannon vehicle in the Karşıyaka
neighbourhood of Şemdinli, in Hakkari, were hit by a rocket injuring both, one
seriously.
Late
last night, a car bomb struck a military vehicle in Lice, in Diyarbakır province, killing two soldiers and
wounding four others in an attack the authorities have blamed on Kurdish
rebels.
HDP
accused of double standards over terror attacks
While
the HDP has condemned the deaths of the soldiers and police officers, they have
shied away from criticising the PKK, even though the terror group has publicly
claimed responsibility for the deaths. As a result, the party has been slammed
by the government and opposition parties for its double standards over terror
attacks.
Many
commentators believe the party is now at a critical crossroad. Its recent
electoral success had seen HDP attract votes beyond its traditional nationalist
Kurdish supporters, helping to carry it into the Turkish Parliament. They now
have to choose to denounce all violence and pursue a path of peaceful
negotiations, which will garner them greater support inside and outside of Turkey. Or they
may prefer to stay loyal to their Kurdish nationalist roots and the PKK and
risk reducing their political influence and electoral support base.
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Selahattin Demirtaş & his party HDP under
pressure to denounce PKK violence
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Turkey’s resolve
against terrorist attacks grows
While
HDP deliberate, the government has been fast and firm in its response to the growing
security risks at home and across the border. The Turkish authorities have
arrested members of Daesh and the PKK, along with those belonging to the
radical Marxist-Leninist group DHKP-C.
The
have also changed strategy along the Syrian border, with security stepped up.
There are also discussions about building a 500-mile long wall to try to limit
the easy access terrorists currently enjoy along the porous border. More significantly,
since Friday Turkish jets have been pounding both PKK and Daesh strongholds in Syria and northern Iraq.
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Turkey allows USA to use Incirlik Air Base for air strikes against Daesh. Photo: Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press
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In
his regular column for Daily Sabah,
AKP’s senior advisor İbrahim Kalın said, “The
immediate goal is to clear Turkish-Syrian border from ISIS
and other security threats. Securing the border is critical for both Turkey and for
the moderate Syrian opposition including the FSA. It will also help the Syrian
refugees fleeing ISIS's barbarism and the
barrel bombs and the militia violence of the Assad regime.”
He
also counters claims that Turkey
is not doing enough to combat Daesh, asserting that the Turkish authorities have
a good track record in stopping the flow of foreign terrorists into Syria. He
states that in the past seven months, Turkey has detained more than 500 Turkish
citizens and expelled some 1,600 foreigners suspected of pro-Daesh activities, while
preventing a further 15,000 foreign supporters of Daesh from entering Turkey.
