2 huge explosions reported near Besiktas stadium in Istanbul - 2016-12-10

Source: https://www.rt.com/news/369901-besiktas-stadium-istanbul-explosion/

Strange timing ... though let's see how it develops.

#C
 
update: ISTANBUL STADIUM BLAST WAS TERROR ATTACK – TURKISH MINISTER

The Saturday explosion outside the stadium was a terrorist attack, Turkish Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan announced on Twitter.
Now let's see who will be blamed, ... so many different agendas potentially in play.

#C
 
It seems at least 13 people have been killed:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/istanbul-car-bomb-explosion-live-9433072
 
https://www.sott.net/article/336306-Massive-Istanbul-explosions-kill-29-injure-166

Massive Istanbul explosions kill 29, injure 166

Some 29 people, including 27 police officers, have been killed and 166 other injured in a car bomb and a suicide bombing that shook Istanbul on December 10, the country's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced. Soylu announced that ten suspects in the deadly attacks have been taken into custody.

Earlier authorities reported about 15 deaths and 38 injuries. ​Two massive explosions rocked Turkey's largest city after a football match at Vodafone arena. The target was a van full of police leaving the stadium after having provided security, Soylu said.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurman Kurtulmus said the attack comprised a car bomb outside the stadium in the city's Besiktas district, followed 45 seconds later by a suicide bomber nearby.

Soylu called the attacks "a cruel plot" and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement after tragedy that it had been designed to "maximize" casualties.
 
Number of casualties has been increasing.

Currently I have no certain idea about who might have committed the attacks.

Burhan Kuzu, the key advisor to the President, posted some tweets after the event stating that the timing of the attacks is significant because a proposal for a semi- and then full-presidential system has been just made in the parliament and that this is what the PKK madly opposes. He was also severely criticized for having celebrated the proposal in the wake of the violent terrorist attack.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Numan Kurtulmus, also said many clues suggest the assailant to be the PKK.

A few days ago, a Turkish observation satellite was launched on its orbit and there were some local news reports that the PKK is much annoyed about it.

Recently, the ISIL has also been vowing for vengeance against Erdogan because of the Turkish military operations against ISIL-held al-Bab.

So, currently, most people think the PKK or the TAK (Kurdistan Freedom Falcons), which is closely related to the PKK, is behind the attacks.

Although the ISIL has been making accusatory statements against Erdogan for a long time, most of the ISIL suicide attacks in Turkey were against civilian people who also interestingly happened to be the political opponents of the AKP, including Kurds and leftist people. This suggested that the most of the ISIL-connected cells in Turkey did not want to openly act against Erdogan's rule because Erdogan did not act against them in a radical way and he even developed many covert strategic partnerships with them in direct and indirect ways. In fact, I now believe that most of the 'homegrown' ISIL-affiliate groups in Turkey and the ISIL headquarters in Syria and Iraq have not been exactly the same. Erdogan has cleverly attempted to tame its local brand with a certain success. I don't know the extent to which this fact still applies but I think that, otherwise, there would have been much more ISIL attacks against Erdogan's rule and also against general people in Turkey.

I think the reason Erdogan hates the PKK and its civilian Kurdish sympathisers so much is because he found them to be mostly untameable. Despite most of the Kurdish people including those in Turkey are Sunni Muslims (in the Shafi sect), the PKK is not so Islam-friendly and, as far as I know, there are many different religious tendencies among its millitants including atheism and Zoroastrianism as well as Islam. So the PKK often hates and threatens those Kurds in Turkey who tend to seek dialog and cooperation with the AKP rule on Islamic grounds.

Considering the fact that the PKK has been significantly supported by the USA and its allies in explicit and implicit ways, and that it doesn't seem to have a high opinion of Russia and its allies despite the PKK's leftist ideological discoures in its past (Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, etc.), it seems plausible to me to conclude that the PKK has been significantly co-opted by the PTB in time and it has been made a tool of terror. I'm not sure if it is OK to consider that that the PKK and the PYD are the same or complimentary organizations. I tend to believe that the PKK is much dirtier although the PYD doesn't want to question or heavily oppose the PKK because they are siblings and in need of each other in that hell-like region.
 
Erdogan cancels visit to Kazakhstan due to Istanbul terrorist attack - newspaper

http://tass.com/world/918506

The latest reports say about 29 people killed in the attack, including 27 police, and 166 got injured

Turkey’s President Recep Payyip Erdogan has cancelled the visit to Kazakhstan due on December 11-12 after the terrorist attack in Istanbul on Saturday night, the Milliyet newspaper said on Sunday.

The latest reports say about 29 people killed in the attack, including 27 police, and 166 got injured.

Erdogan’s previous visit to Kazakstan was in April, 2015.
 
Turkish police arrested 568 people in 28 out of 81 provinces, including Ankara, Istanbul, Gaziantep, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Diyarbakir during operation, conducted on December 12-13, according to the Turkey's interior ministry.

Turkish Police Arrest 568 People After Terrorist Attack in Istanbul
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612131048514502-turkey-pkk-police-operation/

Turkish police arrested 568 people on suspicion of ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party, outlawed by Ankara, the country's interior ministry said on its website on Tuesday.

On Sunday evening, two separate blasts took place in the central Besiktas district of Istanbul, as a result of which 27 police officers and two civilians were killed. The blasts occurred near the Vodafone Arena about one hour after a football match finished at the stadium. According to media reports, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks. According to the ministry, the police operation was conducted on December 12-13 in 28 out of 81 provinces, including Ankara, Istanbul, Gaziantep, Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Diyarbakir. The detainees are accused of terrorism propaganda via social networks and activities in support of terrorist organizations.

PKK is outlawed in Turkey as a terrorist organization. A ceasefire between Turkey and Kurdish militants collapsed in July 2015, prompting the Turkish authorities to launch a military operation in the Kurdish-dominated southeastern regions.

On Monday, Turkish media reported that the police arrested 118 activists of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) as part of the anti-terrorist operation in the wake of the Istanbul attacks.
 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called for a national mobilization in the face of the terrorist threat following the recent terror attack in Istanbul.

Turkish President Announces National Mobilization Following Istanbul Attack
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612141048551475-erdogan-national-mobilization/

On Saturday, two bombs exploded near the Vodafone Arena Stadium in the Turkish largest city, killing at least 44 people, mostly police officers, and injuring about 150. The country's authorities claimed that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was tied with the twin blast.

"I announce a national mobilization. Henceforth, neither terrorists nor their supporters will have a minute of peace. I appeal to our security forces: the whole country, all the citizens are with you against terrorists," Erdogan said at a meeting with the heads of rural administrative authorities in Ankara.

Erdogan noted that Turkey is currently fighting with PKK, the Daesh jihadist group, outlawed in many countries including the United States and Russia, and the so-called Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization (FETO) accused of organizing a failed coup in July.

Erdogan noted that "certain groups" wanted to force Turkey not to intervene in the situation in the region and concentrate on domestic affairs.


Turkish opposition party chairmen of Republican People's Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) pledged full support for the government's counterterrorism fight, local media reported Wednesday.

Turkish Opposition Parties CHP, MHP to Support Govt's Counterterror Fight
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612141048550593-turkey-yildirim-mhp-chp/

Turkish opposition party chairmen Kemal Kilicdaroglu of Republican People's Party (CHP) and Devlet Bahceli of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) pledged full support for the government's counterterrorism fight following the meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, local media reported Wednesday.

"The issue of terrorism is above politics,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said after the meeting on Wednesday, as quoted by Daily Sabah. The meeting took place in the wake of the twin blast in Istanbul on December 11, which killed at least 44 people, mostly police officers, and injured about 150 people. The country's authorities believe that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) could be behind the twin blast.
 
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