TURKEY: Istanbul bombings death toll rises, PM calls for unity

Record ID: 217340

  • Title: TURKEY: Istanbul bombings death toll rises, PM calls for unity
  • Date: 28th July 2008
  • Summary: (W3) ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JULY 28, 2008) (REUTERS) TOPSHOT OF CLEARED EXPLOSION AREA WOMAN PLACING A TURKISH FLAG ON WINDOW VARIOUS OF TURKISH FLAGS ON APARTMENT WINDOWS PRIME MINISTER TAYYIP ERDOGAN VISITING THE SCENE MAN LOOKING AT ERDOGAN FROM WINDOW ERDOGAN WALKING BY BLAST SCENE SNIPER ON ROOFTOP ERDOGAN VISITING SHOP OWNERS WIDE SHOT OF AREA ERDOGAN PEOPLE CHANT
  • Embargoed: 12th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC2FBYDA440FJJEZYHC9EEFY30
  • Story Text: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan visits the site of Sunday's explosion and calls for unity as the explosion death toll rises.
    The death toll in two bomb blasts in Istanbul rose to 17 on Monday (July 28) in an attack that sharply increased tension as a top Turkish court began deliberating on whether to ban the governing party.
    The toll rose when one person died from wounds sustained in the Sunday (July 27) evening's blasts in a working class neighbourhood on the European side of Istanbul, Governor Muammer Guler said. Five of the dead were children, he said.
    More than 150 people were wounded, with 50 people being treated in hospital, including six in a serious condition.

    "Today is the day of unity, the day of coming together. We will be as successful as we stand together against terror, as we push terror to loneliness,"
    Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told journalists after visiting the explosion area.
    Erdogan said, the Turkish government is very aware terrorism acts with police and military forces working against terror.

    "All of this shows how sensitive we are against terror. But unfortunately this has a price. This event is one of them," he said.
    Armed forces chief General Yasar Buyukanit said in a statement: "The attacks, which were staged in a crowded street at a busy hour and without discriminating between men and women, young, old and children, showed once again the gory face, ruthlessness and despair of terrorism."
    In the emotionally charged aftermath of the bombings, the Constitutional Court, Turkey's highest judicial body, began deliberating on whether the ruling AK Party has engaged in Islamist activities and should be closed. The party denies the charges and a ruling is expected in early August.
    The court case is linked to a long-running power struggle between Turkey's secularist establishment and the Islamist-rooted AK Party, which are at odds over the direction of the officially secular but predominantly Muslim country.
    No one has claimed responsibility for Sunday's bomb attacks, the deadliest in Turkey since 2003. But police were increasingly looking at the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
    The PKK condemned the attack, the Firat news agency, which is close to the guerrillas, said on its website.
    Newspapers said three people had been detained in connection with the attacks.
    The site was still cordoned off on Monday and police were not allowing people into the area other than shop owners.
    Kurdish separatists, far-left groups and Islamist militants have all carried out bombings in Istanbul in the past.
    The PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, has waged a deadly campaign for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey since 1984. But it usually does not target civilians.
    The Istanbul attacks came hours after Turkish jets bombed suspected PKK positions in northern Iraq, used by guerrillas as a base from which to carry out strikes on Turkish territory.
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