Turkey: Istanbul hit by ‘suicide bomb’

[ellenrr]

Source: Euronews

Reports from Turkey say there has been an explosion in the centre of Istanbul.
It is said to have been a suicide bombing on a main shopping street in a tourist area.

Istanbul’s governor says four people are known to have died and 20 wounded, including three in a critical condition.

TV pictures show an area being cordoned off by police, reportedly in Istiklal Street, a wide pedestrian boulevard lined with international stores and shopping centres.
Helicopters were seen circling overhead and people were seen running from the area.

Turkey has been hit by a rising tide of violence in recent months.

Read more: http://www.euronews.com/2016/03/19/explosion-hits-central-istanbul-some-people-wounded-turkey-s-dogan-news-agency/

---

---trying to turn Turkey into another failed state in the area...

[mainer]

1. I have been there many times. Heartbreaking.

It's a center of urban hipness, and a symbol of modern Turkey. The question is, PKK vs. ISIS. PKK would be crazy to pick a fight with Ankara when they're simultaneously busy fighting ISIS.

[Divernan]

4. Al Jazeera's background re ISIL/ISIS and PKK

The explosion comes as Turkey is on edge following two recent suicide bomb attacks in the capital, Ankara, which were claimed by a Kurdish group, that is an off-shoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Turkey has been fighting on multiple fronts. As part of a US-led coalition, it is battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), which has seized territory in neighbouring Syria and Iraq.

It is also battling the PKK in its southeast, where a two-and-a-half-year ceasefire collapsed last July, prompting the worst violence since the 1990s.

Turkey sees the unrest in its largely Kurdish southeast as deeply linked to events in northern Syria, where the Kurdish YPG militia has seized territory as it fights both ISIL and rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad.

ISIL has carried out at least four bomb attacks on Turkey since June 2015, including a suicide bombing which killed 10 German tourists in central Istanbul in January.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/istanbul-taksim-square-area-hit-explosion-160319091702737.html

I had the pleasure of spending 10 days in magnificent Istanbul about 12 years ago. Spent most of my time in the old part of town - but did go to a huge mall (at the time 2nd largest in the world) in the modern shopping area to get Fenerbahce football (soccer) shirts for my kids.

Traveled solo as 60+ year old woman - no problems or concerns re security/safety. Very sad to read of the current situation there. Hope the many kind people I met there are safe.

[mainer]

6. I have traveled Turkey a number of times as a lone female

And have always been treated with the utmost respect and friendliness. I've also gone with my husband, who has a Jewish-sounding first name, and shopkeepers would always ask eagerly when they saw the credit card: "Oh, is he Jewish?", as if delighted to see a Jew visiting. They always seemed disappointed when I said no.

We've traveled into central Turkey driving a rental car, into villages where no one spoke English. Sometimes the whole village would come out to help us if we were lost, pulling out maps and trying to explain how to find the main road.

Interesting that among the dead were Israeli citizens. There are mountains (in the north I think) which are very popular for Israeli climbers.

[ellenrr]

9. PKK does not pick a fight with Ankara. Erdogan has waged war on the Kurds forever.

Turkey is one of the most dangerous places for journalists. thanks to Erdogan. Erdogan will use any excuse to attack Kurds and to further restrict whatever freedom remains in Turkey.
some people think his forces set off the bomb that killed dozens at the start of the Peace March.
"President Erdogan says freedom and democracy have 'no value' in Turkey amid arrests and military crackdown
Dozens of activists, politicians and academics have been detained in Turkey as discussions continue over the refugee crisis"

.. any excuse...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/president-erdogan-says-freedom-and-democracy-have-no-value-in-turkey-amid-arrests-and-military-a6938266.html

[mainer]

10. Erdogan is a horrible nightmare. But PKK did claim responsibility for the Ankara bombing.

I have long been sympathetic to the Kurds, but this is a very bad time for them to be escalating tensions in Turkey by bombing civilian targets. It damages Western sympathy for the Kurds and it hurts any future peace negotiations.

The bombing of the Peace March certainly struck me as aimed at the Kurds, but that may have been ISIS. Not yet clear.

[wordpix]

12. Turkey supports Hamas as US supplies the weapons + war vs. Kurds

Totally insane policy to arm Turkey, the Kurds and Hamas. Mostly helps the MIC in their neverending war.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-dept-defends-arms-sales-to-turkey-despite-hamas-ties/

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-weapons-turkey-state-department-approves-70m-smart-bomb-sale-turkish-military-2163090

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/28/u-s-set-to-transfer-arms-to-turkey-to-fight-terror-group/

[Bad Dog]

14. I don't think the PKK are picking a fight with Ankara as such.

The ceasefire broke down a long time ago. Erdogan sees the Kurds, not IS as the problem, and that's the nub of a lot of problems in the area. A pro Kurdish rally was bombed last year, although the finger pointed at IS suspicions remain that Erdogan supporters may have been behind it.

It's a real mess, and it suits IS, but until Erdogan addresses the very real issue of Kurdish autonomy it will keep happening.

[ellenrr]

15. absolutely - Kurdish autonomy

And the story of the autonomous area in Rojava, the democratic area is one of the best kept secrets--

"There is an astonishing story in Sunday’s New York Times about Rojava, a Kurdish region in Northern Syria that’s ruled by militant feminist anarchists. Rojava’s constitution enshrines gender equality and religious freedom. An official tells journalist Wes Enzina that every position at every level of government includes a female equivalent of equal power. Recruits to Rojava’s 6,000-strong police force receive their weapons only after two weeks of feminist instruction. Reading Enzina’s piece, it’s hard to understand how this radical experiment in democracy in one of the bloodiest corners of the world isn’t better known internationally, particularly on the left."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2015/11/25/rojava_is_a_radical_experiment_in_democracy_in_northern_syria_american_leftists.html

[ellenrr]

16. manifesto of founder of PKK

Abdullah Ocalan from prison read American anarchist, environmentalist, social critic Murray Bookchin's work.
and
"Ocalan urged all guerrilla fighters to read ‘‘The Ecology of Freedom.’’ He instructed his followers to stop attacking the government and instead create municipal assemblies, which he called ‘‘democracy without the state.’’ These assemblies would form a grand confederation that would extend across all Kurdish regions of Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran and would be united by a common set of values based on defending the environment; respecting religious, political and cultural pluralism; and self-defense. He insisted that women be made equal leaders at all levels of society."

The Kurshish fighter, mainly women, have successfully freed a town from IS.

[ellenrr]

17. i'm not angry nor having a bad day. Just bec. I don't want to have to read trivia

does not mean I am having a bad day.
Of course I cannot stop anyone posting whatever drivel they want to.
At the least tho people who post drivel could acknowledge that what they are posting has no relevance at all to the subject, -- so why not post in the DU lounge.
or take responsibility for posting drivel, instead of telling me to "lighten up".

That is a really inane response: to tell someone to "lighten up".
There are lots of place that might be appropriate but in a serious discussion of foreign affairs, is not one of them.

[mainer]

19. I don't think posting expressions of sympathy is drivel

No one's making jokes or diminishing the tragedy. Some are simply saying they have personal experiences that make them especially sad about what has happened.

[Divernan]

22. Get a grip; you're embarrassing yourself

Dismissing expressions of concern, worry and sympathy for the people in Istanbul as "drivel"!?!?! Describing such expressions as fucked up? trivia? belonging in the lounge?

The experiences, impressions and concerns of DUers who have lived, worked, traveled, and/or studied abroad have traditionally offered interesting perspectives & nuance on developments abroad.

I just saw one of your posts in another thread you started, in which you called someone "fucking naive". because, he/she, in a very serious and civil way didn't agree with you 100% on the topic of protestors interfering with free speech.

Your responses are way over the top and offensive. I'm not alerting on you because I think basically you make some validly debatable points - it's just your choice of language and uber-sensitivity which are really, really off-putting.

[Bad Dog]

18. It's been sccessful in Iraq too.

It's a crying shame what's happening in Turkey right now.

[Divernan]

2. "Equivalent of bomb going off in Oxford St. in London or 5th Ave, NYC"

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/istanbul-taksim-square-area-hit-explosion-160319091702737.html

Government officials said at least five people were killed and 36 were injured - seven seriously - in Saturday morning's explosion. The suspected suicide bomber is believed to be among those killed. Twelve foreign citizens were among the wounded, including an unknown number of Israelis.

Footage from the scene showed police and emergency services cordoning off the street, which has been completely cleared of people.

Witnesses told Al Jazeera that hundreds of people ran in panic away from the site of the explosion, moments after the incident.

Istiklal street is a long pedestrian thoroughfare that winds its way through the Beyoglu neighbourhood from Taksim Square. It is rimmed by hundreds of shops and would have been filled with pedestrians at the time of the explosion. Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal said the location of the explosion was the equivalent of a bomb going off in Oxford Street in London or Fifth Avenue in New York.

[Recursion]

5. I've been there more times than I can count

Oxford St. is probably a better comparison, but, yeah, 5th Ave. is close. God this is awful

[Recursion]

3. I love Istanbul. This breaks my heart. (nt)

[Ghost Dog]

7. Sunni Islamist extremists, most likely. But Erdogan himself

imho, would not be beyond organising such action to further his aim to become dictator-for-life. Kurds, much less likely. Israeli or Saudi specials? Not impossible. US neocons? Also not impossible.

Been there too. World's greatest, most beautiful city full of very fine people. Thought this would happen in that street one day.

[ellenrr]

8. general comment re the responses:

No one cares how often you've been to Turkey. that proves what exactly?
and the poster who expresses sympathy for the 'people I met'.
Really?
No sympathy for the rest of the people?
WTF?
this is fucked up.

[mainer]

11. Why are you so angry?

Those of us who've traveled or worked in Turkey (I have Turkish colleagues there) simply feel a special bond to the people and the country. How is this fucked up?

Just because we feel sympathy because of personal friendships in Turkey doesn't mean we don't feel sympathy for EVERYONE in the country.

[wordpix]

13. having a bad day? Pls. lighten up

no need to take someone to task who's expressing sympathy

[MowCowWhoHow III]

20. Two US citizens killed in Istanbul suicide blast: White House

Two US citizens killed in Istanbul suicide blast: White House

Washington (AFP) - Two US citizens were among those killed in a suicide blast that tore through a major shopping district in Istanbul on Saturday, the White House said.

"Turkey has once again suffered a horrific terrorist attack, and we remain steadfast in our support for our NATO Ally and partner," said the statement by National Security Council spokesman Ned Price, which did not identify the two Americans.

http://news.yahoo.com/two-us-citizens-killed-istanbul-suicide-blast-white-210238693.html;_ylt=A0LEV1cVwO1W3LwAn4NXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyNmJjZWttBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjE3OTJfMQRzZWMDc2M-

[redwitch]

21. we have a friend in Turkey now.

Afraid for him. There on business, praying for his safe return.