Hundreds of people gathering in the centre of the Turkish capital of Ankara to hold a peace rally were just targeted in a bomb attack. Two powerful explosions killed at least 86 of those gathered and nearly 200 others were wounded. Amidst the carnage of the attack (the moment of the explosion and the fireball that consumed that demonstration was caught on film and is quite disturbing) questions concerning who was responsible need to be asked and thought about carefully.
Since July Turkey has been at war once again against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Islamic State (ISIS) group. The former of whom it had held a ceasefire with and the latter of whom it did not engage for just under a year of U.S.-led operations against it. Indeed it even stopped the U.S. from using strategically-important air bases on Turkish soil for operations against ISIS in nearby Syria.
That all changed in July. Turkish Kurds and the PKK alike were deeply flustered that the Turks would not help their Syrian brethren in the Syrian Kurdish border-town of Kobani when it was under a lengthy four-and-a-month-long siege by ISIS. Turkish Kurds rioted and fears abound that the 29-year war between Ankara and the PKK that a ceasefire had brought a halt to since early 2013 would resume. Despite the severe clashes and rioting it did not. But it was clear the ceasefire was in a moribund juncture. Ankara did let a small contingent of Iraqi Kurdish ‘Peshmerga’ fighters cross through Turkish territory to assist besieged Kurds are Kobani after the U.S. had closely assisted them with close air support and it was clear they were going to win anyway.
ISIS licked its wounds after Kobani. A major defeat for them considering the efforts they had made to break the will of the Kurdish resistance there. They ‘avenged’ themselves in a characteristically cruel way last June for that siege when they managed to infiltrate Kobani dressed as Kurdish militia fighters and massacre over 230 men, women and children there.
By July efforts were underway among Kurds in neighbouring Turkey to raise funds to help the Syrian Kurds rebuild Kobani. Where, to the present day, most of the buildings remain destroyed and it remains largely a ghost town thanks to that lengthy siege. A gathering of activists for these efforts were held in Suruc, a town in Turkey near Turkey’s porous frontier with Syria. It was blown up. As was the case with this mass-murder in the centre of Ankara the bombing of that gathering was also caught on camera since the demonstration itself was being filmed. 33 people were killed in that attack. Shortly thereafter a Turkish border guard was killed in a clash with ISIS.
The PKK, claiming that the Turkish state was doing nothing to protect Kurds, be they in Syria or Turkey murdered two Turkish police officers in response. Ankara responded. It told the Americans they were welcome to use those important air bases for their war against ISIS. Launched some cross-border air raids of their own but for the most part focused their efforts on the PKK. Declaring the ceasefire dead they simultaneously arrested hundreds of Kurds and suspected ISIS members and began to bomb PKK strongholds in the mountains of Northern Iraq. That campaign continues to the present.
As is the case with Ankara today we still do not know who blew up those demonstrators in Suruc. Many suspect ISIS who are, for obvious reasons, the most likely culprit. Both gatherings were made up of many politically active leftists and sympathizers with the Kurdish cause. Many of those killed in the recent rally in Ankara were supporters of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – some of the bodies on the street were covered with their HDP party flags – and in Suruc the majority of those killed were members of a far-left party called the Socialist Party of the Oppressed.
Why the PKK would bomb such a gathering in Ankara is beyond me. This demonstration was opting for peace and the PKK has voiced its desire for a ceasefire to the current round of hostilities. Why ISIS would do such a thing, however, makes much more sense. And not just because of their seemingly endless desires to top prior atrocities. If this bombing, like Suruc before it, drives a deeper wedge between the state, Turks and Kurds, then ISIS will be the one with the most to benefit. Not just because Turkey will be gripped by further turmoil and weakened as a result but because it will also further divide the Kurds. Remember in Northern Iraq ISIS have long been engaged against the PKK in Sinjar. If the Turkish bombings against the PKK persist then an adversary of ISIS will be weakened–an adversary they hate in the same vain as they hate many of those leftists thorn to pieces by those horrific bombings in Suruc then and Ankara now.
Photo by Martin Cathrae, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share-alike 2.0 Generic license