ERDOGAN BLAMES PKK FOR ISTANBUL BLASTS
PanARMENIAN.Net
29.07.2008 13:32 GMT+04:00
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan implicitly blamed
separatist Kurdish rebels Monday for two bomb blasts that ripped
through a crowded Istanbul street, killing 17 people and wounding
more than 150. The attack Sunday night further raised tensions
hours before the Constitutional Court met to decide the fate of
Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, facing closure on charges
of undermining Turkey’s secular system.
Erdogan all but named the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK),
describing the two explosions as "the cost" of an intensified crackdown
against the rebels in Turkey and in neighboring northern Iraq, where
they take refuge.
"Unfortunately, the cost of this [military action] is heavy. The
incident last night was one such example," he said at the scene of
the blasts as residents chanted, "Down with the PKK."
The explosions were the deadliest attack against civilians in Turkey
since 2003, when 63 people were killed in four suicide bombings in
Istanbul blamed on Al-Qaeda.
Both bombs were planted in concrete rubbish containers on a crowded
pedestrian street lined with shops and cafes in the popular Gungoren
neighborhood on Istanbul’s European side.
A small device went off first at around 10:00 p.m. on Sunday, creating
the initial panic, officials said.
A second, more powerful explosion followed about 10 minutes later
about 50 meters away as passers-by and residents milled around the
site of the first blast.
Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler put the death toll at 17, five of
them children, and warned it could rise with six people in critical
condition, the AFP reports.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the
international community, took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the
southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed more than
37,000 lives.