Fear of new wave of terror

After the bomb attack, the Turkish government declared a young Syrian woman with links to the Kurdish PKK guerrilla as the perpetrator. Nationalist feelings and fear of the next election campaign dominate on the Bosporus.

Relatives mourn Arzu Özsoy and her 15-year-old daughter Yagmur Ucar, who were killed in Sunday’s attack.

Emrah Gurel/AP

One day after the deadly attack in central Istanbul, Turkish flags line Istiklal Street as far as the eye can see. Politicians and passers-by lay carnations at the site of the shopping mile where a bomb killed six people and injured more than eighty passers-by on Sunday. In the side streets, tourists roll their suitcases over the pavement and look for a hotel further away from the center. “Martyrs are immortal,” sings a woman’s voice plaintively from a taxi driver’s radio.

Tufan, the ice cream seller, works just a hundred meters from the scene of the crime, stirring his pots with a stony face. “Everything was full of blood, indescribable,” he says. Panicked people would have hidden in his shop. He is convinced that there was a big plan behind the assassination. “The attack was supposed to divide our country, but nobody will succeed,” he says fervently. He fears that tourism and the economy could be damaged. But the unity of the country never, Tufan is convinced of that.

Many traders and passers-by in the center of Istanbul think the same way, and those who think otherwise don’t dare say it. “It’s too sensitive a topic,” says a passer-by in a tense voice and hurries away. Shortly after the assassination on Sunday afternoon, the government imposed a news ban – since then almost only statements by authorities and members of the government have been published.

For the government, those responsible are clear

Just a few hours after the attack, the police caught the alleged perpetrator: a Syrian citizen who had recently entered Turkey illegally from the Syrian region of Afrin. During her interrogation, the 23-year-old admitted to having acted on behalf of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG. According to the police, she received her instructions from the Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria. Since then, Turkish media have shown the pictures of their arrest in a continuous loop.

Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu went one step further. On Monday he accused Washington of supporting “terrorist organizations” in northern Syria. The USA has been relying on the YPG in the fight against the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) for years, while Turkey regards it as the Syrian arm of the PKK and has already taken action against the militia in northern Syria several times. Erdogan has always received a lot of support from nationalist-minded voters.

An avenue of flags on Istiklal Street a day after the attack.

An avenue of flags on Istiklal Street a day after the attack.

Erdem Sahin/EPA

Erdogan had already announced a new offensive on the Kurdish-controlled city of Tal Rifaat in northern Syria in the spring, but has so far done nothing. It is suspected that the Turkish president did not get the approval of the Russian head of state Vladimir Putin for an offensive. It is now questionable whether the Turkish government will take the assassination as an opportunity to invade Syria after all.

The PKK denies any connection

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization in the EU and the US, assured on Monday that it had no connection to the attack. The population and the democratic public are aware “that we have nothing to do with this event and do not carry out or advocate attacks aimed directly at civilians,” according to the PKK People’s Defense Center.

In fact, the attacks by the PKK and its affiliated terrorist groups have so far generally been directed against the security forces, although civilians have also regularly died. The PKK now called the attack on Istiklal Street a “dark event” and an attempt by the Turkish government to change the political agenda in its favor. The northern Syrian city of Kobane was declared the target of the attack.

Dark memories of earlier campaign times

For many Turks, the attack brought back grim memories of 2015-2017, when a series of horrific terrorist attacks shook Istanbul and the rest of the country. At that time, many were committed by IS supporters, but some also by the ominous PKK splinter group Freedom Falcons of Kurdistan (TAK). The attacks created a mood of fear across the country.

When part of the military staged a coup against President Erdogan in July 2016, the government severely restricted freedom of expression and cracked down on political opponents with great severity. Dissenting voices in the fight against terrorism were not tolerated. The policy of the hard hand brought Erdogan electoral successes and also secured him a majority for his authoritarian presidential system in April 2017.

Presidential and parliamentary elections are due again in Turkey next year. The country is currently suffering from hyperinflation of over 85 percent. The opposition has formed an alliance of six, and Erdogan’s re-election is uncertain. Now many Turks fear that another fearful election campaign is ahead, in which security is prioritized over democracy.

source site-111