Headlines:
- Ankara Bombing: Investigation into Turkey’s Deadliest Terrorist Attack to be ‘Completely Focused’ on Isis
- Turkey Launches Air Strikes on Terrorist PKK Camps After Ceasefire Move
- NATO Ready to ‘Defend’ Turkey as Russia Strikes Syria
Ankara Bombing: Investigation into Turkey’s Deadliest Terrorist Attack to be ‘Completely Focused’ on Isis
Addressing mourners in the capital, the HDP’s Demirtas accused the government of failing to protect the protesters.
The unions which organized Saturday’s rally have called for a nationwide strike on Monday and Tuesday in protest.
Those that gathered in Sihhiye Square near the site of Saturday’s explosions also vented their anger at the government, chanting “murderer Erdogan” and “murderer police”. Skirmishes broke out when riot police barred mourners from laying flowers at the scene.
Government officials vowed that the perpetrators would be brought to justice and insisted that the elections scheduled for November 1 would be held as planned despite heightened tensions amid a resurgent conflict with the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and increased threats of a spillover from Syria’s war.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Saturday that Turkish police had arrested several potential suicide bombers in the days leading up to the attack, adding that either Isis, Kurdish militants or leftist terror groups could have attacked the Ankara rally.
The Turkish Haberturk newspaper quoted police sources as saying that one of the Ankara bombers was suspected to be the brother of the Suruc bomber, reporting that the explosives used and the target resembled tactics used by an Isis-affiliated group with roots in the southern province Adiyaman.
The explosions hit the Ankara rally as the marchers were preparing to call for an end to the fighting between Turkish security forces and the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US and the EU. As many as 40,000 have been killed in the three-decade conflict, with hundreds dead since a two-year ceasefire collapsed in July.
Turkey resumed its air strikes against the PKK even though the group’s leaders had ordered its militants to stop its attacks ahead of the elections. Two soldiers were subsequently killed in clashes with militants in the country’s east.
Turkey also arrested 36 suspected Isis members, pro-government media reported. The government has denied accusations of security failures in Saturday’s attack, which is the third bombing to hit civilians after Suruc and the June attack on a HDP rally in Diyarbakir. [Source: Independent]
Before 3 months with the same way Turkey was being dragged to the treachery in Syria. After bombing at Suruc, Turkey has opened its Incirlik airbase to strike Syria. Now with the pretext of ISIS Turkey is being dragged to a bigger treachery plot.
Turkey Launches Air Strikes on Terrorist PKK Camps After Ceasefire Move
Security sources said some 30-35 PKK militants were killed in northern Iraqi raids on Sunday.
“The PKK ceasefire means nothing for us. The operations will continue without a break,” one senior security official told Reuters.
The PKK umbrella group told its militants on Saturday to halt attacks unless they face attack, in response to calls for them to avoid acts which could prevent a “fair and just election” being held on Nov. 1.
The announcement, though expected, came hours after twin bomb attacks on a rally of pro-Kurdish and leftist activists at Ankara’s main train station which a pro-Kurdish party said killed 128 people.
PKK shelters and gun positions were destroyed in the Metina and Zap areas of northern Iraq in Sunday’s air raids, a military statement said. It also said 14 PKK militants were killed in strikes in the Lice district of Diyarbakır province in southeast Turkey on Saturday.
Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan had already dismissed the anticipated ceasefire declaration as a “tactic” ahead of the election, reiterating government demands that the militants lay down arms and leave Turkey. [Source: Today’s Zaman]
As elections approaches Turkish government attacks on PKK to boil nationalist sentiments and PKK acts like innocent.
NATO Ready to ‘Defend’ Turkey as Russia Strikes Syria
Alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, makes comment after violations of Turkish airspace by Russian jets conducting airstrikes in Syria
Russia’s air campaign in Syria has caught the US and its allies on the back foot and alarmed Syria’s northern neighbour Turkey, which says its airspace has been repeatedly violated by Russian jets.
On Wednesday Russian warships fired missiles into Syria from the Caspian Sea for the first time. The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said four warships launched 26 rockets at Isis targets.
The Syrian push on the ground is the first time Assad’s forces have coordinated with the Russian airforce in an attempt to seize lost territory from opposition forces, leading to some of the fiercest fighting in months in a civil war that has now lasted four and a half years and killed more than 250,000 people.
Russia’s air campaign in Syria has caught the US and its allies on the back foot and alarmed Syria’s northern neighbour Turkey, which says its airspace has been repeatedly violated by Russian jets.
Turkey said Syria-based missile systems harassed its warplanes on Tuesday while eight F-16 jets were on a patrol flight along the Syrian border. The Russian ministry of defence said it was continuing to consult with Turkey to ensure there would be no repetition of the incident.
The US Department of State repeated accusations that a large majority of Russia’s military strikes in Syria have not been aimed at Isis or jihadis tied to al-Qaida, and have instead targeted the moderate Syrian opposition.
Speaking in Brussels, the US ambassador to Nato, Douglas Lute, said on Wednesday that Russia’s buildup in Syria now included a “considerable and growing” naval presence, long-range rockets and a battalion of ground troops backed by Moscow’s most modern tanks.
He said the Kremlin seemed to be intent on forging a new counter-coalition to the western-Gulf axis, bringing together the Russians, Iranians, Iraqis and Hezbollah behind Assad.
Moscow had managed a “quite impressive” military deployment over the past week to its Syrian naval base in Tartus and its army base in Latakia, Lute said.
A senior Turkish official said 18 Russian warships had passed through the Bosphorus strait at Istanbul en route to Moscow’s Syrian base, amid conflicting reports of Russian ground forces also being deployed. [Source: The Guardian]
Turkish leaders are still not able to distinguish their real allies and enemies. Turkey has to be distant to non-Muslim unions like the NATO and has to reestablish real union of Muslim world the Khilafah on the way of the Prophethood.