On 10 October, two bomb blasts officially killed 97 people in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
The had gathered for “Labour, Democracy, and Peace Rally” to protest the resumption of war between the Turkish state and Kurdish militants, mainly in Turkish Kurdistan.
The deadly atrocity, which fundamentally targeted the rapprochement and unity of the Kurdish people, Alevis, leftist and progressive social groups in Turkey, was no surprise.
The attacks can be seen as the continuation of a political process which commenced with the overturning of peace process between the state and the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), and with the end of two-year ceasefire.
It is important to point out that the violence intensified and all the atrocities occurred after the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, HDP, achieved a big success in the June general election, passing the 10 per cent threshold and winning 80 seats in the parliament.
This electoral achievement was significant. It led the ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, to lose its absolute majority.
Following the elections in July, a bomb exploded in the town of Suruc, near the Syrian border, killing 33 young Turkish and Kurdish activists who were taking part in the reconstruction of Kobane in Syrian Kurdistan. Meanwhile, the Turkish state did not hesitate to impose a curfew and martial law in Turkish Kurdistan.
According to Turkey’s Human Rights Association, in just the two and a half month period since the Suruc massacre, 96 civilians, including 21 children, were killed in the war against Kurds.
The Suruc bombing was followed by over a hundred fascist attacks on HDP offices, organised by far-right Nationalist Movement Party, MHP, and its organic youth organisation.
The recent suicide bombing in Ankara is the culmination of a process which targeted not only the electoral success of the HDP but also the solidarity and peace that Turkish and Kurdish people want to build. It is reported that Islamic State is the prime suspect in recurrent suicide bombings in Turkey, but it has also been revealed that the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation as aware of the potential suicide bombers.
Although the governing party utilises coercion, manipulation and repression in order to denounce the HDP as the extension of the illegal PKK, leftist organisations and workers have shown solidarity with those killed in the explosions. Left-wing trade unions, the Turkish Medical Association and Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, which had organised the “Labour, Democracy, and Peace Rally” in Ankara, called for a two-day general strike.
The call was supported by workers in Senkromec Scheider factory in Izmir; Sio factory in Trakya; Cimsatas factory in Mersin, Cayirova factory in Gebze, and many others.
