On July 20, 32 people were killed in a suicide bombing attack on a cultural centre in Suru莽, a town in Turkish Kurdistan. More than 100 were injured.
Suru莽 is located across the border from the Syrian Kurdish town of Koban锚, which was besieged by forces of the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), between September and January.
The resistance of the Kurdish-led Women's Protection Units (YPJ) and Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) made the town known globally as the place where the seemingly unstoppable advance of ISIS was halted.
ISIS made a renewed attack on Koban锚 on June 25, massacring 233 civilians, mainly children, before the YPG and YPJ drove them off.
The victims of the July 20 bombing in Suru莽 鈥 the first significant ISIS attack on Turkish territory 鈥 were mainly members of the Socialist Federation of Youth Associations (SGDF). Several hundred SGDF activists and allies had travelled to Suru莽 from across Turkey with the intention of continuing to Koban锚 to assist in the city's reconstruction and to witness the feminist, grassroots democratic revolution in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan). Building a children's playground and a library were among their planned projects.
Some of the victims of the Suru莽 massacre.
In an , Kurdish journalist Amed Dicle wrote: 鈥淭hey met with the district governor and told him that they would like to cross over to Koban锚. The district governor kept them waiting by saying that only a few of them could cross over as opposed to the whole group.
鈥淭he bloody attack in Suru莽 took place after young people made a press statement in Amara Cultural Centre in response to the district governor [preventing them from continuing] 鈥 Police comprehensively searched the youth as they were heading to Amara Cultural Centre.
鈥淭he police checkpoint was 200 metres away from Amara 鈥 Did the police set up the checkpoint 200 metres away from Amara so that they would not get hurt by the explosion?
鈥淗ow did the ISIS suicide bomber enter the cultural centre in an environment where the police searched each notebook, camera and even pencil on the slaughtered youth?鈥
A number of eyewitness accounts report that Turkish security forces attacked survivors and the injured after the explosion.
that Kurdish filmmaker Garip 脟elik, who was filming the SGDF's press conference when the bombing took place, 鈥渘oted that the police came to the crime scene after the explosion only to attack civilians [and] said that ambulances arrived too late and many injured people were taken to hospitals in civilian cars.鈥
that eyewitnesses reported that 鈥淭urkish police attacked some of the vehicles carrying the injured with water cannons and threatened those helping the wounded鈥.
Director of the Amara Culture Centre Zehra Yanarda臒 told the : 鈥淭he police came before the ambulances. Tanks closed off the roads, and they threw tear gas 鈥 We couldn't breathe. Many of the wounded died that way.鈥
She said survivors waved down cars to take the wounded to hospital.
鈥淥ne of the cars we stopped 鈥 refused to open its doors. It was a civilian car. When people really insisted, a gun emerged from the car and they opened fire. We found out that those were police,鈥 she said.
There have been consistent allegations of Turkish collaboration with ISIS, particularly against the Kurdish-led forces in Rojava, who are ideologically aligned with political parties and armed self-defence groups in Turkish Kurdistan. During the siege of Koban锚, ISIS forces resupplied from across the border.
On June 15, when the YPJ, YPG and their allies took the town of Tell Abyad (Gir锚 Sp卯) from ISIS, the defeated ISIS forces fled across the Turkish border to Ak莽akale. 鈥淪oon after, Dicle News Agency and other oppositional media organs documented the ISIS headquarters in Ak莽akale,鈥 .
The fall of Tell Abyad was a significant strategic defeat for ISIS, cutting them off from the Turkish border and at the same time connecting two of the three cantons of the Rojava Autonomous Administration.
The June 25 attack on Koban锚 was launched from directly across the Turkish border. It was seen by the Kurdish revolutionary forces as revenge for the defeat of ISIS at Tell Abyad but also for the successes of the left wing Kurdish-based Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) in the June 7 Turkish election, whose strong showing deprived the ruling AKP of President Recep Tayyip Erdo臒an of an absolute majority in parliament.
The HDP's electoral success was based on bringing together a broad coalition of leftists, feminists, LGBTI activists, and ethnic and religious minorities. This coalition drew heavily on the Gezi Park movement of 2013, when protests over the privatisation of public space in Istanbul snowballed into a nationwide youth-led civil society uprising.
The HDP condemned Turkish government complicity in the Suru莽 bombing. In a July 20 statement HDP co-chairs Figen Y眉ksekda臒 and Selahattin Demirta艧, noting the failure of the Turkish state to provide security, said 鈥渙ur people, our political institutions, civil society organisations, municipalities and all social structures such as vocational organisations should develop their own security measures鈥.
The ISIS attack and Erdo臒an government's complicity has also been condemned by political organisations throughout Kurdistan and by left-wing groups in Turkey, Europe and the Middle East.
Thousands have mobilised in ongoing protests in Turkey that have been harshly repressed by police with tear gas and water cannons. There have also been worldwide protests in solidarity.
On July 20, the US National Security Council released a condemning the ISIS attack but expressing solidarity with the Turkish government.
The Turkish government responded by announcing a crackdown on terrorist cells throughout Turkey.
鈥淭urkish police hit 140 addresses in 26 districts in Istanbul [on July 24] in an operation that was reportedly aimed at the YDG-H (Patriotic Revolutionary Youth-Movement) the DHKP-C (Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front) and ISIS 鈥
鈥淲hile much is being made of the Turkish government's recent moves against ISIS 鈥 the government and the reactionary ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are using the fight against ISIS for cover to instead attack the people's organisations within Turkey and North Kurdistan and revolutionary Rojava in northern Syria,鈥 .
A woman, G眉nay 脰zarslan, was killed in the raids. Police allege she was a member of the DHKP-C.
Raids were conducted in other cities, which Turkeyharvest.blogspot.com.au said also targeted members of legal political organisations including the HDP.
The Turkish air force has bombed targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan and at least two police have been killed by PKK-affiliated self-defence forces.
Just before she was killed in the Suru莽 atrocity, 20-year-old Ezgi Sadet was .
鈥淎ll the children of Gezi need to come to Koban锚. Because there, we witnessed a living revolution. Everyone needs to stand up for this, especially women. We are calling on all women, all children of Gezi, all those who resist, all revolutionaries, socialists, everyone to be in solidarity with Koban锚,鈥 she said.
鈥淭his revolution took place right next door to us. It took place in the Middle East, a place where violence, repression, cruelty to women and torture are intense. We will go to this place, where there's been a women's revolution, and rebuild it.鈥
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