ISIS massacre in Suruc, Turkey

This 20 July video is about the bloody attack, very probably by ISIS, in Suruc town in Turkey, near the Syrian border. Over 330 young people who wanted to help with reconstruction in Kobani in Syrian Kurdistan after the ISIS attacks on that town, were targeted by a bomb. The young people had gathered at a camp of the SGDF (Federation of Socialist Youth Organisations).

This video says about itself:

Disbelief and determination at funeral for Suruc suicide-bomb victims

21 July 2015

A mass funeral has been held in Gaziantep, southern Turkey for 27 of the victims of the suicide bombing in Suruc.

Most of those who died in the attack were students of university age who had gathered at the hall ahead of a planned trip to help rebuild the neighbouring Syrian town of Kobani.

The feeling among mourners was one of disbelief, but also determination.

“We will not give up, whatever happens,” said one woman. “We will defend peace and brotherhood.”

By the Turkish correspondent of the World Socialist Web Site:

Atrocity sparks calls for Turkish intervention in Syria

22 July 2015

An explosion on Monday outside a cultural center in the Turkish town of Suruç, on the border with Syria, killed at least 28 people and wounded more than 100. The main suspect of the suicide bomb is the Islamic State (IS), however, it has not yet taken responsibility.

The explosion occurred at around noon in front of the Amara Culture Center, as some 300 members of the Socialist Youth Association (SGDF) from İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir and Diyarbakır were issuing a press statement on the reconstruction of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani. SGDF members were preparing to travel to Kobani to help with the reconstruction. Kobani was the scene of fierce battles between Kurdish and IS fighters, and recaptured by Kurdish forces last month.

The terrorist attack in Suruç is a clear provocation, which could trigger ethnic and sectarian clashes within Turkey, while serving as the pretext as well for a Turkish invasion of Syria.

The explosion comes several weeks after the deployment of additional Turkish troops and equipment to its border with Syria. Turkey’s leaders have said they do not plan any unilateral military incursion into Syria, but have also said they will do whatever is necessary to defend the country’s borders. Ankara fears the build-up of a Kurdish-controlled area of northern Syria by the PYD/YPG, an offshoot of the PKK, the Kurdish separatist guerrilla group in Turkey.

The massacre in Suruç is first and foremost a byproduct of the devastating policies of US imperialism, in which Ankara plays an essential role in the Middle East. As everyone knows, the AKP government is the main regional force that fomented the Syrian civil war, supported ISIS for a protracted period, and thus made it possible for the Islamist group to stage terrorist attacks inside Turkey.

ISIS had threatened the Turkish government with attacks after Ankara and Washington exchanged positive signals on the question of using İncirlik Air Base in south-central Turkey for US air strikes against IS. Whether Ankara cuts its covert support to ISIS or not, the AKP government is responsible for dragging Turkey into the bloodbath now taking place in Syria and Iraq.

Some bourgeois politicians and media commentators have already started to say that the government must respond to the terrorist attack in Suruç with the already prepared military intervention into northern Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself declared that now is “the time to act.”

ISIS is only one of dozens of ethnic and sectarian-based proxy organisations in Syria, created by US imperialism and its regional allies like Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Turkish ruling elite, itself, has admitted that there are hundreds of Islamist “sleeper cells” within Turkey, and some 5,000 Turkish militants have joined ISIS. In return, with the exception of few token arrests, the AKP government has not done anything against them. Rather, it has equated ISIS and the PKK-PYD and oriented all its fire against the latter. The so-called “Kurdish policy” of the Turkish government is an inseparable part of its proxy war in Syria, based on fomenting ethnic and sectarian divisions and hostility.

In a written statement following the attack, the Interior Ministry said, “We call on everyone to stand together and remain calm in the face of this terrorist attack which targets the unity of our country.”

Meanwhile, in a hypocritical attempt to whitewash the responsibility of his government in the terrorist attack, Erdoğan condemned those behind it. “Terror has no religion, no ethnicity, no nationality, and no country,” he said. “We always stated that an international struggle should be taken up against terrorism, we continue to express this.”

This video says about itself:

Germany: Thousands march in solidarity with Suruc victims

20 July 2015

Thousands hit the streets of Berlin, Monday, to express their solidarity with the victims of the attack in Suruc that killed dozens earlier in the day. The crowd marched wielding the flag of Rojava as well as placards critical of current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This video from London, England says about itself:

ISIS flag burns as London Kurds protest deadly Suruc terror attack

21 July 2015

Over 1,500 predominantly Kurdish protesters marched through the streets of North London protesting the alleged Islamic State suicide bombing of Kurdish activists on Monday in the town of Suruc, southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border. At least 30 people were killed and over 100 injured in the explosion.

There will be more on this blog on this horrible crime, and its context. It raises issues like: Why is attention and indignation in the international corporate media about this crime less than for the murders at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, though more people have been killed and injured now? What exactly is ‘terrorism’? What is the ‘war on terror‘? Is it a real war? What makes it different from wars like World War One or the Vietnam war?