Istanbul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Emotions and tensions ran high in Istanbul as some of the victims of the Suruç attack were laid to rest today. Hundreds of men and women holding hands surrounded the coffins, creating the image of a Kurdish people unwilling to bend to the violence of the Islamic State (IS) group.
Those carried were but some of the 32 people killed yesterday by a suicide bomber who, as a result of DNA tests, was identified as a 20-year-old man from Adiyaman who had joined IS only two months ago.
If the Kurds mourn their dead and bravely declare that they would not surrender, the death toll got longer when two Turkish police agents were found dead, ostensibly killed by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê, PKK), in a “punitive action” against the Turkish state for “cooperating” with the Jihadis.
In fact, many Kurds and even many Westerners have criticised Ankara for its attitude towards IS since most would-be IS fighters tend to enter Syria by crossing the 911-km Syrian-Turkish border.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself has been accused of using IS against Syria’s Bashar Assad – a de facto supporter of a Kurdish autonomous zone – to counter the aspirations for autonomy or even independence among Turkey’s 15 million Kurds.
The same goes for Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu who yesterday chaired a cabinet meeting to discuss an "action plan" to improve security on the border with Syria, and “stop Daesh and similar terrorist organisations” from achieving their targets. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for Islamic State in Syria and the Levant.
Davutoğlu is probably worried about Monday’s protests and police crackdown in the country’s big cities. The more so since Turkey’s main Kurdish party, the Peoples' Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi, HDP), has called for a rally in Istanbul, next Sunday. Last June, the party won 13 per cent of the vote in the country’s parliamentary elections.
Lastly, the Twitter ban imposed soon after the attack has been reversed by the order of a court in the south-eastern province of Şanlıurfa, where Suruç is located, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
It was initially imposed because Twitter’s internal review process had exceeded the four hours it is allowed under law, and only 50 out of 107 pictures had been removed. Now all of them are gone.