Turkey yesterday vowed vengeance against Kurdish militants it said were likely behind twin bombings that killed 38 people and wounded 155 in what appeared to be a coordinated attack on police outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul.
The blasts on Saturday night — a car bomb outside the Vodafone Arena, home to Istanbul’s Besiktas soccer team, followed by a suicide bomb attack in an adjacent park less than a minute later — shook a nation still trying to recover from a series of deadly bombings this year in cities including Istanbul and the capital, Ankara.
There was no claim of responsibility, but Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said there was “almost no doubt” the attacks were the work of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has carried out a three-decade insurgency, mainly in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast.
Photo: AFP
Thirteen people have been detained, Turkish Minister of the Interior Suleyman Soylu said.
“Sooner or later, we will have our vengeance. This blood will not be left on the ground, no matter what the price, what the cost,” Soylu said in a speech at a funeral at the Istanbul police headquarters for five of the officers killed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the funeral, but did not speak, although he greeted and hugged some of the family members.
Photo: AFP
Soylu also warned those who would offer support to the attackers on social media or elsewhere, comments aimed at pro-Kurdish politicians the government accuses of having links to the PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the US, Europe and Turkey.
“To those trying to defend the perpetrators from podiums, over the media or Internet, and trying to make up excuses. There is no excuse for this... Know this: The blade of the state stretches far and wide,” he said.
In recent months, thousands of Kurdish politicians have been detained, including dozens of mayors and the leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), parliament’s second-biggest opposition party, accused of links to the PKK.
The crackdown against Kurdish politicians has coincided with widespread purges of state institutions following a failed coup in July that the government blames on followers of a US-based Muslim cleric.
In a statement, the HDP condemned the attack and urged the government to end what it called the language and politics of “polarization, hostility and conflict.”
Soylu said the first explosion, which came about two hours after the match between Besiktas and Bursaspor, was at an assembly point for riot police.
The second came as police surrounded the suicide bomber in the nearby Macka park, he said.
Thirty-eight people died, including 30 police and seven civilians, he said.
One person remained unidentified, officials said.
A total of 155 people were being treated in hospital, with 14 of them in intensive care and five in surgery, Turkish Minister of Health Recep Akdag told a news conference.
Flags flew at half-mast, and yesterday was declared a day of national mourning. A march against terrorism had been called in Istanbul.
Erdogan canceled a planned trip to Kazakhstan, his office said.
“What we must focus on is this terror burden. Our people should have no doubt we will continue our battle against terror until the end,” Erdogan told reporters outside a hospital where he had been visiting some of the injured.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg condemned what he described as “horrific acts of terror,” while European leaders also sent messages of solidarity.
The US condemned the attack and said it stood with its ally.
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