Several thousand Turks gathered in Istanbul and other cities yesterday to condemn this week’s suicide bombings, with many protesting against what they see as the root cause of the attacks - the United States. Police in riot gear looked on in Turkey’s business capital as unions, political parties and community groups peacefully joined those affected by the blasts to share their sadness and anger at the four attacks, which killed more than 50 people. “Curse this terrorism, it killed my friend,” said retired businessman Ismail Yildirim. “The imperialist powers are behind this, they are turning the Middle East into a bloodbath. They want to drag Turkey into it, but they will fail.” Pinned to his lapel was a photograph of a friend killed in last Saturday’s suicide attack on the Neve Shalom synagogue. Some in the crowd of several thousand held up Turkish flags and stood motionless in the bright winter sunshine for a minute of silent remembrance.
**Nearby a group chanted anti-American slogans, shouting: “Terrorist America, get out of the Middle East.” ** **“We know who the murderers are,” said a caption on one placard, below pictures of US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. **Turkey is a close NATO ally of the United States, but many Turks believe US Middle East policies played an indirect role in provoking the Istanbul attacks. **Some in the crowd also suggested that US and other intelligence services were directly responsible. ** “I believe these attacks carry the fingerprints of the CIA, Mossad and (Turkish intelligence service) MIT. They want to push Turkey and America closer together after recent tensions between them,” said 22-year-old engineering student Mustafa Colak.
the turks themselves point the finger at the Western intelligence services as the terrorists involved in the bombings, turkey itself is one of the most secular extreme nations it does’nt have a major militant islamic presence, now these bombings all of a sudden. to take these reports from media that the invisble alkaida have owned up and are the ones responsible is not enough and does’nt wash with a lot of people!
I am not surprised by these sentiments. After all it was just a few months ago that the Turkish PM was publicly stating that 98% of Turks were against sending forces to Iraq, and of course the Turkish government had to reverse it's decision because of this huge opposition. Plus going back to the founding of the modern Turkish state there has always been a historical distrust of Great Britain for it's prime role in the destruction of the Ottoman empire.
^Indeed but also remember that Turks in general don't have any affinity towards the US unlike popular belief. Modern Turks may dress western, speak English, etc. but their hearts and minds are very much for themselves and not for the West. Given that, this recent news of the Turks blaming the US for the blasts is of no surprise to me.
Did the UK stage the Istanbul bombing to coincide with Bush visit
Isn't it a bit coincidental that the Istanbul bombing happens at the same time as the Bush visit to UK. Where as in the past 99% of the time it has always been US targets and suddenly a UK target! I think that Blair is trying to dupe the UK public into thinking that it was right to go to war alongside America, just like America did by staging the biggest Twin Tower 'terrorist act' in history, and duping the world into thinking that America was right all along! when it wasn't. their act even got the sympathy of countries that were always in opposition to the US. With major protests going on in the UK, Blair has resorted to US tac-tics, maybe that after seeing the aftermath people in the UK may just support him! But we in the UK are not as stupid as the American people, they believe anything thats fed to them on TV, but then again some people may be gulable.
Turks should do serious investigation before they open their mouth.
3 Turkish bombers had Pakistani connection
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: At least three of the four suspects named in the Istanbul bombings, had spent up to two years in Pakistan, attached it is to be assumed to one of the militant Islamic outfits that flourished in Punjab and Azad Kashmir until recent crackdowns by the government.
Disclosures such as these further deepen the widely-held belief abroad that Pakistan has acted as the hothouse where such desperate and suicidal creeds have grown or taken their final, lethal shape. As the Washington Post put it Monday, “Notably religious, each of the suspects bore that markers of Islamic militancy familiar in biographies of suicide bombers, including travel to Pakistan for ‘religious training.’”
When two of the bombers – Azad Ekinci and Mesut Cabuk - returned from Pakistan to their hillside home town of Bingol, they were wearing beards and they had traded their jeans for the Pakistani shalwar qameez. A local architect who knew both boys said they were “religious before but not like after Pakistan.”