Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Turks grieve after bombing
Investigators near ID on one of two suspects, premier says
Turkish mourners gather around the coffin of Fatma Esen, a victim of Saturday’s Ankara bombing attacks, during a funeral in Istanbul on Monday. Turkish investigators are close to identifying one of the suicide bombers, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
ANKARA, Turkey — Hundreds of people marched through Istanbul and the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Monday to condemn the slaughter by suicide bombers at a weekend peace rally, with many venting their anger at the Turkish government itself.
Some demonstrators chanted: “The killer state will be held to account!”
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, however, rejected accusations by opponents that the government was to blame for the nearly simultaneous attacks Saturday, calling them “dangerous” and “dastardly.”
He also denied that they were a result of Turkey’s involvement in war in Syria and that the government was dragging the country into the Middle Eastern quagmire. The government believes two male suicide bombers killed at least 97 people and wounded hundreds at a rally Saturday in Ankara by opposition supporters and Kurdish activists.
“These attacks won’t turn Turkey into a Syria,” Davutoglu said.
Government opponents have also accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of fomenting violence and ethnic tensions to gain votes for the ruling party in Turkey’s Nov. 1 election, an accusation that the Turkish leader rejects. In the previous election in June, a Kurdish party gained support from voters, taking away the ruling party’s majority in Parliament — and Erdogan wants that majority back.
IDENTIFYING SUSPECTS
Turkish investigators were close to identifying one of the two suicide bombers, the prime minister said Monday, adding that the Islamic State group was the “No. 1 priority” of its investigation.
The rally Saturday was organized by Turkish and Kurdish activists to call for increased democracy and an end to the renewed fighting between Turkey’s security forces and Kurdish rebels that has killed hundreds of soldiers, rebels and citizens since July.
On Monday, Yeni Safak,a newspaper close to the government, said authorities investigating the bombings were focusing on the Islamic State, comparing DNA samples of the suspected bombers with those obtained from the families of some 20 extremists they suspect could have carried out the attacks.
No one has claimed responsibility, but the attack bears similarities to a suicide bombing in July that killed 33 Turkish and Kurdish peace activists near the southern town of Suruc, which borders Syria. The government blamed that attack on the Islamic State.
Hurriyet newspaper said the type of device and explosives used in Ankara were the same as those used in Suruc.
DEATH TOLL INCREASES
The government raised the death toll in the weekend attack to 97, including one Palestinian. A pro-Kurdish party said up to 128 people have died. Doctors said dozens are in serious condition, many with burns.
Several labor unions embarked on a two-day strike starting Monday to denounce the attacks. Across the country, funerals were also held for some of Saturday’s victims.
Davutoglu said Turkey had received intelligence that Kurdish rebels or Islamic State militants were planning suicide bombings and said two would-be bombers were detained before Saturday’s attack.
“There was general intelligence that Daesh especially, and certain teams of the PKK in northern Iraq, teams calling themselves the ‘immortals,’ were being prepared,” Davutoglu said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State and an abbreviation for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
He said the attack Saturday aimed to influence the result of Turkey’s Nov. 1 election and cast a shadow over the polls.
MORE DETAINED
Police detained nine more suspected Islamic State militants in raids in the southern cities of Adana and Kilis, officials said Monday. The detentions raised to 45 the number of suspected Islamic State militants taken into custody in four cities since Saturday. It was not clear if any of the arrests were linked to the peace rally bombings.
Turkey agreed recently to more actively support the U.S.-led battle against the Islamic State, opening its bases to U.S. aircraft launching airstrikes on the extremist group in Syria and carrying out a limited number of strikes on the group itself.
Analysts said the Islamic State stands to benefit the most from the continued Turkish-Kurdish conflict, which would take Turkish pressure off the extremist group in Syria.
The Islamic State also has no love lost for Kurdish forces, since it has fought Syrian Kurdish forces who are allied with Turkey’s Kurdish rebels in northern Syria — including over the town of Kobani, which was recaptured from the Islamic State by Kurdish forces last year.