PHOTO: People walk past a car damaged in Friday’s bombing in Diyarbakir (Sertac Kayar/Reuters)
The Islamic State has claimed Friday’s bombing that killed nine people in southeastern Turkey, but Ankara is continuing to blame the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK.
ISIS’s Amaq news agency said that fighters detonated a car bomb outside a police annex building in Diyarbakir. More than 100 people were wounded.
However, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim pinned responsibilty on the PKK, which has fought Turkish security forces for more than 30 years, saying the group had again shown its “ugly face” with the attack.
The assault came within hours of the detention of two co-leaders and 10 other MPs of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which supports Kurdish autonomy. Some legislators were later released, but co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yüksekdağ remain in prison.
See Turkey Feature: Government Detains Opposition Leaders
The US expressed “deep concern”, while Germany and Denmark summoned Turkish diplomats. European Parliament President Martin Schulz said the actions “call into question the basis for the sustainable relationship between the EU and Turkey”.
However, pro-Government media maintained a drumbeat on Saturday for tough action. Daily Sabah headlined, “Pro-PKK HDP Politicians’ Support for Terror at a Glance“.
Yıldırım said opposition politicians should “pay the price” if they engage in “terror”: “Politics cannot be a shield for committing a crime. Turkey is a state of law.”
