http://aa.com.tr/en/todays-headlines/foreign-envoys-visit-blast-site-in-istanbul/704642
ISTANBUL
Consuls general from across the world gathered in Istanbul on Monday at the site of Saturday’s deadly terrorist bomb attacks.
Representatives from over a dozen countries -- including the U.S., Germany, France, the U.K. and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus -- joined local civic leaders and religious figures.
In a commemoration ceremony at Dolmabahce Clock Tower in the Besiktas district -- scene of the twin blasts which claimed 44 lives -- the foreign diplomats, along with local mayor Murat Hazinedar and religious leaders, left wreaths and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
Consuls general from the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Azerbaijan, Israel, Belgium, Brazil, South Korea and Austria were also among those represented.
The group marched from the clock tower to Belestepe (now renamed Martyrs’ Hill) -- the exact site where the attack happened -- to show solidarity with the Turkish nation.
Besiktas mayor Hazinedar told Anadolu Agency the bombs did not just attack Turkey’s values but the values of humanity.
Recalling world leaders’ solidarity march in Paris after the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack, Hazinedar called for a similar display in Istanbul from national leaders.
Saturday’s twin terror attacks -- one by a bomb-laden car and the other a suicide bomb -- against riot police near Besiktas’s Vodafone Arena after a Turkish football league match killed 44 people and left 155 more wounded.
President of Besiktas football club, Fikret Orman and some of the club’s executive members also visited the site and left wreaths on Monday.
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http://aa.com.tr/en/todays-headlines/turkey-235-arrested-on-terror-charges/704718
ANKARA
At least 235 people were arrested Monday across Turkey on terror charges, the country's Interior Ministry announced.
Anti-terror operations were mounted in 11 provinces to detain suspects who had allegedly engaged in activities of the PKK terror organization and spread terror propaganda on social media, the ministry said in a statement.
Police reports also said Monday that dozens of members of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were arrested in separate operations across the country.
Suspects include HDP provincial heads in Istanbul, Ankara, Manisa, Adana, and Mersin, as well as district-level party heads.
The government has repeatedly accused the HDP of having links to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU.
The arrests came after Saturday evening's deadly blasts in Istanbul left 44 dead and dozens of others wounded. At around 10.30 p.m. (1930GMT), a car bomb went off outside a football stadium in the city's Besiktas district, two hours after the end of a Turkish League football match. Seconds later, a suicide bomb attack occurred in Macka Park in the same neighborhood.
A total of 13 suspects linked to the bombings have so far been arrested.
Nine more suspects were also detained for social media posts over Saturday night's terror attack in Istanbul, anti-terror police said. Those suspects allegedly shared pro-terror posts which served terrorist organizations' propaganda.
People gather to protest the yesterday's Istanbul terror attacks on December 11, 2016 at Wittenbergplatz in Berlin, Germany. At least 38 people, including 7 civilians, were killed and 155 people were injured in two separate bomb attacks in the Besiktas district of Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday. ( Erbil Başay - Anadolu Agency )
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tu...ing-.aspx?PageID=238&NID=107173&NewsCatID=341
A twin bomb attack in the heart of Istanbul that killed at least 44 people following a top-tier football game has sent the nation into mourning and great anger, with thousands hitting the streets in protest.
At least 30 of the victims of the attack, which targeted a police vehicle, were officers, while seven of them were civilians, according to initial reports by state officials with the identity of one victim remained unknown.
Early on Dec. 12, another civilian identified as Selin Çelik, who was wounded inside a bus in the attack, succumbed to her injuries in intensive care.
Some 155 people were wounded in the attack near Beşiktaş’s Vodafone Arena Stadium, after a Beşiktaş-Bursaspor game, just minutes after some fans had left the facility.
Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said “there is no doubt” that the attack was carried out by the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“They should know that we won’t leave them unpunished. They should know that they are going to pay a heavy price,” President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told journalists, after visiting the wounded in the hospital.
“My people should have no doubt that we will carry out the struggle against terror until the very end. We wore our burial robes when we took this road,” he said.
“All terror groups are equally vile,” Yıldırım told journalists after visiting the wounded.
“The terrorist groups in despair, who are attacking the unity and fraternity of our nation, are presenting all their shamelessness in order to make an impression,” Yıldırım said.
“Turkish people can beat all organizations just like it did on the night of the failed coup attempt,” he said, referring to the July 15 attempt that was foiled by the security forces and the civilians hitting the street.
“Terror is a blind street. Terror only hurts. But in the end it destroys itself. We’ve been through massive tests. I believe that we will also succeed in this,” the prime minister said.
Deputy PM Numan Kurtulmuş also said all indicators pointed to
PKK as the perpetrator.
“The arrows point at the PKK,” Kurtulmuş told broadcaster CNN Türk in an interview. “There will be an announcement once the investigations are over.”
Thirteen suspects have been detained in connection to the attack, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said. A total of six prosecutors were assigned to investigate the attack.
“Have you gone past the point of living in caves like animals?” he asked, referring to the perpetrators. “Do you have a life other than living like fugitives and treachery?”
The first explosion came from a moving car that directly targeted riot police near the stadium, Kurtulmuş said in a press meeting earlier in the day. The second attack came 45 seconds after the first one when a suicide bomber detonated explosives at Maçka Park just across from the stadium after he was surrounded by police.
The huge blasts occurred at around 10:20 p.m., around 90 minutes after a match between
Beşiktaş and Bursaspor ended at the nearby ground. It was heard on both sides of the Bosphorus.
Following the attack, Bursaspor stated on its official Twitter account that there were no injuries among its supporters.
One of the civilian victims was a 21-year-old student, Berkay Akbaş.
“My son was at the scene of the blast. I can’t get a hold of him,” his father wrote on social media before he was identified.
Beşiktaş announced that one of the civilians killed was Tunç Uncu, a staff member at the
Beşiktaş store while the other was a congress member and a police officer.
Uncu, who happily posed for a photo with
Beşiktaş left back Caner Erkin a week ago, was laid to rest in a ceremony attended by the squad.
Vefa Karakurdu, the police officer in charge of security during the game, reportedly told his friends just before the attack that the game between the archrivals occurred “without any incident.”
Police chief Karakurdu, police chief Kadir Yıldırım and police officers Adem Oğuz, İlker Uylaş and Hasan Bilgin were laid to rest after a funeral held at Istanbul police headquarters on Vatan Avenue in Fatih.
The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) expressed condolences to the relatives of the victims, vowing that the fight against terrorism would continue “until the last terrorist is neutralized.”
The
Turkish Football Federation (TFF) announced that planned matches would go ahead but would be proceeded with a moment of silence beforehand, Doğan News Agency reported.
December/11/2016
