Bomb kills 13 Turkish soldiers
Authorities blame Kurdish militants for suicide attack, and Erdogan says killing is ‘not unrelated’ to Syria and Iraq conflicts
ISTANBUL // Thirteen soldiers were killed and 56 people injured yesterday when a suicide car bomber blew up a public bus transporting off- duty troops in the city of Kayseri.
The blast happened a week after a car bomb attack claimed by Kurdish militants killed 44 people, mainly riot police, and injured more than 150 others near a football stadium in Istanbul. Interior minister Suleyman Soylu said the identity of the Kayseri attacker was known and that seven people had been taken into custody in connection with the attack. Police were searching for five others. Although no group admitted the bombing, authorities said the signs suggested it was the work of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK. Kurd- ish militants said they carried out the football stadium attack, and deputy prime minister Veysi Kaynak described the Kayseri bombing as “unfortunately similar” to the one last weekend in Istanbul.
“All indications at present point to the PKK,” said government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus. “We have to take into account all possibilities but the signs at present point to the PKK.”
The suicide bomber ambushed a commando brigade going on weekend leave at 8.45am in Kayseri, a usually calm industrial town in central Anatolia.
The bomb went off at the en- trance gate to Erciyes University. Health minister Recep Akdag said four of the 48 wounded soldiers were critically injured. Kurdish militants have claimed several attacks against soldiers and police across Turkey this year in violence that has also caused many civilian casualties.
“Turkey is under a combined attack by terrorist organisations, especially the divisive terrorist organisation,” said Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“We know that these attacks we have endured are not unrelated to happenings in Syria and Iraq, or even our economical fluctuations.”
Turkey has fought the PKK for decades in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. The collapse of a two-anda-half year ceasefire in July last year set the stage for a violent chapter and vast security operations began in the mainly Kurdish south-east.
Turkey is also at odds with western- backed Kurdish factions fighting against ISIL extremists in Syria and Iraq. Turkey views these groups as extensions of the PKK.
Hours after yesterday’s bombing, nationalist protesters stormed the headquarters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Kayseri. They threw papers and furniture into the street and removed the HDP sign from the entrance.
One group went to the top of the building, started a fire and draped a giant red flag with three crescent moons, the insignia of the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
Turkish media said the protesters were supporters of the Grey Wolves, a militant wing of the MHP that was prominent in the 1980s and 1990s. The government said the HDP was the political wing of the PKK, a claim the HDP denies. The HDP condemned the attack. “We all must stand together for peace, democracy, justice and freedom against violence, to end this pain,” it said.
Kayseri is one of the nationalist party’s strongholds, although Mr Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has made inroads in recent years.
Meanwhile, right- wing protesters targeted a meeting of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in central Kayseri. A state of emergency was declared following a failed July 15 coup attempt in Turkey and remains in force. The Turkish government has detained tens of thousands of people and fired tens of thousands of others for alleged ties to a movement led by a cleric it said was behind the attempted coup, a claim that was denied.
The prime minister’s office imposed a temporary blackout on coverage and urged media to refrain from publishing anything that may cause “fear in the public, panic and disorder and which may serve the aims of terrorist organisations”.