Turkey mourns as Kurdish militants claim twin bombings
ISTANBUL — Turkey declared a national day of mourning and paid tribute to the dead Sunday after two bombings in Istanbul killed 38 people and wounded 155 others near a soccer stadium. The carnage was claimed by a Turkey-based Kurdish militant group.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, said two of its members had sacrifificed their lives in the Saturday night attack that targeted securit y forces out- side the Besiktas stadium shortly after the conclusion of a match.
A statement posted on TAK’s website described the blasts as reprisal for state violence in the southeast and the ongoing imprisonment of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Authorities consider a PKK offffshoot.
The twin car- and- suicide bombings near the stadium enraged top offifficials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who vowed to hunt down the perpetrators. The attack was the latest large- scale assault to traumatize a nation confronting an array of security threats.
Turkey is a NATO member and a partner in the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State.
The attack targeted police offifficers, killing 30 of them along with seven civilians and an unidentifified person, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters. He said 13 people had been arrested in connection with the “terrorist” act.
In an address at a funeral for the slain police offifficers before TAK’s statement was released, a furious Soylu con- demned Kurdish rebels and their allies in the West, referring to the PKK as “animals.”
“Have you accomplished anything beyond being the servants, pawns and hit men of certain dark forces, of your dark Western partners?” he asked.
Turkish offifficials made no further comments after the TAK claimed responsibility.
The battle bet ween the PKK and the Turkish state has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of citizens. Turkish offifficials frequently accuse the West of supporting the Kurdish insur- gency and of interfering in Ankara’s fight against the militants.
Hundreds of flag-carrying demonstrators marched along Istanbul’s coastline toward the stadium at the heart of the blast area. Flags flflew at half-staffff across the country and at Turkey’s foreign missions. Passers-by placed flflowers on barriers surrounding the soccer stadium.
The fifirst and larger explosion took place about 10:30 p.m. Saturday after a Turkish Super League soccer game.
Soylu said the fifirst blast was c aused by a passing vehicle that detonated in an area where police special forces were located at the stadium exit. A riot police bus appears to have been the target. Moments later, a person who had been stopped in nearby Macka Park committed suicide by triggering explosives, according to the minister.
TAK claimed the Turkish people weren’t their target but warned “no one should expect a comfortable life” as long as the ruling party “continues to torture the mothers of Kurdistan every day.”