Turkey detains Kurds, hits militants after twin blasts

ANKARA — Turkey detained over 200 people including dozens of officials from pro-Kurdish parties and struck Kurdish militants in Iraq on Monday in response to this weekend’s twin bombings claimed by a radical Kurd separatist group.

The toll from Saturday’s attacks near an Istanbul football stadium and an adjacent park rose to 44 Monday, Health Minister Recep Akdag said. Most of the dead were police officers.

Turkish jets meanwhile pounded targets in northern Iraq, with the military saying it had hit “separatist terrorist organisation members”, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The targets were in Iraq’s Zap region and militant headquarters as well as nearby shelters and gun positions were destroyed, it said.

In total, 235 people were detained in operations in 11 Turkish cities accused of acting on behalf of the PKK or producing propaganda for the group, some via social media, the interior ministry said.

The ministry did not give specific numbers of how many pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) officials and its sister Democratic Regions Party were held in the early morning raids.

But a HDP official told AFP that 291 of its members had been detained since Sunday night.

The actions are likely to raise fears Ankara is going further in its crackdown and acting out of revenge against pro-Kurdish politicians who stand accused of links to the PKK — a charge that the HDP denies.

After the news of the arrests, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Turkey to ensure it acted within “the rule of law and to respect the principle of proportionality” in comments likely to annoy the Turkish government.

The weekend’s bloodshed was claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), seen as a radical offshoot of the PKK which is itself regarded as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.

TAK has claimed three major strikes this year in Istanbul and Ankara, killing a total of at least 73 people.

Police targeted 

In the aftermath of the attacks, a defiant President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to fight terror “to the end”.

Since the collapse of a ceasefire in July last year, Ankara has vowed to wipe out the PKK and conducted several military operations against the group.

There have also been frequent attacks on security forces by PKK militants in the southeast.

On Monday, Erdogan attended the funerals of some of the slain police officers.

Earlier, senior diplomats from several European countries paid their respects outside the Besiktas stadium, laying wreaths that added to the sea of flowers left by mourners. 

Most of those killed by the car bomb outside the stadium were officers who had been policing a top flight Besiktas game against Bursaspor.

Minutes after the car bomb, a suicide bomber blew himself up by a group of police at a nearby park. 

Along with the 44 dead, 166 people were wounded in the two blasts.

As a tribute, Besiktas Munipality Chief Murat Hazinedar said Beles Hill where the attacks took place would be renamed “Martyr’s Hill”.

And Besiktas General Secretary Ahmet Urkmezgil said ticket proceeds from what is likely to be an emotionally-charged match at the club’s stadium against Kayserispor on Wednesday would go to the families of terror victims.

Crackdown fears 

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu vowed Sunday Turkey would have its revenge in remarks which drew criticism.

Murat Yetkin, editor-in-chief of Hurriyet Daily News, penned an editorial in which he hit out at Ankara’s lack of “deep strategy... other than fiercely reacting”.

Jean Marcou, professor at Sciences Po Grenoble and research director at the French Institute for Anatolian Studies, said the government’s attempts to calm public opinion after the attack “risks promoting increased repression against the HDP”.

Last month 10 HDP lawmakers — including co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag — were arrested and are currently being held in pre-trial detention. 

HDP spokesman Ayhan Bilgen said Demirtas had suffered a heart spasm while imprisoned on Saturday, according to the party’s official Twitter account.

“Despite Demirtas suffering previous reported heart problems, he is deprived of the necessary healthcare,” Bilgen said.

The party claimed that during Monday’s police operations, “we came, you weren’t here” was sprayed on the wall of its Istanbul headquarters, along with the Turkish flag’s crescent and star in black.

Bilgen also shared a picture on Twitter of a room in the headquarters with papers, books and boxes strewn everywhere and a desk on its side.