Yesterday, 10 October, two explosions at a peace rally in the Turkish capital Ankara have killed at least 95 people and injured 245, according to officials. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has announced three days of national mourning, and said there was evidence that two suicide bombers had carried out the attacks. The government claims that these bombers were either from the Kurdish PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) or from ISIS (Islamic State).
At first sight these claims appear unlikely. The Turkish government have, up to now, focused their military efforts in Northern Syria and Iraq against ISIS's most effective enemy, the Kurdish PKK. Indeed, the Turkish army carried out air strikes on PKK targets in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, 10 October. The Turkish military claim to have destroyed PKK shelters and gun positions during its raids in the Metina and Zap areas of northern Iraq. Fourteen PKK fighters were killed Saturday in air strikes in the Lice area of southeast Turkey, the army said. Gaining such help from Turkey's military, it is almost impossible to imagine that ISIS are to blame for the Ankara bombs. They know ISIS bombs would turn the Turkish population further against the government's current military incusions against the PKK, leaving the Kurds more free to develop their so far by far the most effective fighting forces against ISIS.
The bombs went off just after 10 am, two hours before the peace demonstration (that was calling for the government to stop attacking the PKK) was due to start. The bombs were let off in a large contingent of the pro-Kurdish HDP party (Peoples Democratic Party), that was assembling separately from the main march. The HDP said in a statement that it therefore believes its members were the main target of the bombings. The circumstances of the Ankara demonstration makes the government's claim that PKK militants might have set off the bombs equally implausible. Why should they attack the party which, like them, calls for peace between Turkey and the PKK?
It is therefore little surprise that the HDP leader Selahettin Demirtas has blamed 'the state' for the attack and has cancelled all election rallies in the coming, repeated Turkish General Election. Mr Demirtas angrily condemned the government as 'murderers' and said it had blood on its hands.
The pro-Kurdish HDP party has not blamed 'the state' wildly. They are making a reference to the so-called 'deep state' often talked about across Turkey: a poisonous mix of right wing nationalist forces either colluding with or supporting the government in power.
Nato's vital ally in the Middle East is now facing a crisis: deep political polarisation at the coming round 2 election, the bubble of economic success on the brink of bursting, publicly initiating the resumption of ferocious violence against the PKK, the background threat of ISIS, and two million Syrian refugees and counting.
The terrible Ankara incidents demonstrate the expanding whirlpool of death and degradation swirling round the wars in Syria and Iraq. Both of these countries have been bombed by 12 or more nations. Iraq was occupied to create peace and democracy after some Saudi militants destroyed the World Trade Centre and now, nearly 13 years later, barely exists. The other, Syria, also faces dismemberment. The most recent plan by the Turkish government, to persuade the US to organise a 'no fly zone' in an area of north western Syria, to be policed on the ground by the Turks (and do doubt duly Incorporated) has been shelved after Russia's urgent intervention to save the Syrian Regime from the imminent collapse of Damascus and which has now led to the Russian domination of Syrian skies.
The Turks are bombing the Kurds. The US are bombing ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, have joined in (in Syria.) Britain, France, the Netherlands and Belgium have also joined in (Iraq.) Canada has had a go (Syria.) And Australia too. The Assad Government bombs everybody except his own strongholds in Syria and now the Russians are bombing everybody in Syria opposed to the Assad regime as well - and warning off Turkey regarding prospective 'no fly zones' under Turkish suzerainty in the north.
This rain of fire (spectacularly ineffective in military terms against mobile forces without serious infrastructure on the ground) has produced 4 million refugees and 10 million without homes (with little impact on ISIS, except as a recruiting sergeant.) It stems, in its entirety, from the US led 'interventions' into Iraq, and then the actions of the West and Turkey 'seizing the opportunities' posed by the Syrian civil conflict. Everybody understands that the Syrian aspect of the war will only be resolved now that Russia has stepped directly into the fray, by an agreement between the main powers to get out of Syria, force Assad to negotiate and force and bribe everyone else to compromise with Assad. And ISIS? ISIS can only be beaten by an alliance of all of the peoples who inhabit the Middle East, untainted with the region's most recent imperialist masters. They will never be defeated by the West.
The horrible carnage in Ankara is a reminder to all that when a government exports violence it will need to use violence, including 'at home' to maintain that policy. The maiming and death of Turkey's marchers for peace is a direct consequence of the decision of Turkey's leaders to grap 'their opportunity' in the turmoil of the Middle east's widening war.
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