[Event of the week]
Five killed in fatal blast as terrorism hits İstanbul

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), an offshoot of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, (PKK) claimed responsibility for the attack. The incident comes at a time when the terrorist PKK has escalated its attacks on Turkish military targets. More than 50 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the past few months. Last month, the PKK threatened to increase armed operations in all regions of Turkey. Eleven soldiers were killed over the weekend. The government and the top military brass came together at a security summit on Monday to lay out a new strategy on how to confront the PKK.

The explosion took place when the vehicle was passing through the Halkalı district on the outskirts of the city. A convoy of three buses had just left a military residential compound in Halkalı when the explosion hit the last bus, killing two soldiers and a 17-year-old girl. Those who were killed in the attack were identified as gendarmerie Sr. Sgt. Bekir Çelik, Sr. Sgt. Çağlar Bölük, Sr. Sgt. Uğur Ekir, NCO Duran Bayram and Buse Sarıyağ, the daughter of an officer residing at the military compound. All three buses in the convoy were badly damaged by the blast. The windows of the last bus were shattered, and shards of glass were scattered across the highway. Crime scene investigation units looked for evidence yesterday. Neşat Yeni, the driver of the last bus, said the explosion was sudden. “There was a young girl sitting in the middle row. She was seriously injured. I later learned that she died. There were about 30 to 35 people on the bus. After the blast, the vehicle commander fired a few shots. He called for help.” Meanwhile, the critically wounded vehicle commander said he saw a suspect clad in a blue shirt running away, but he couldn’t tell if it was the perpetrator of the attack or a citizen.

Five people were detained on suspicion of involvement for the attack on Thursday.

 Turkey was shaken by news from Şemdinli, in the southeastern province of Hakkari, where 11 soldiers lost their lives within 24 hours in a heinous terrorist attack that killed nine soldiers early in the morning, followed by a mine blast that killed two in the afternoon. Fourteen soldiers were also injured in the morning attack, carried out by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on an army border unit. A separate terrorist assault on a military outpost in the eastern province of Elazığ late on Saturday killed one soldier and injured another, raising the number of slain soldiers to 12.

June 20 Sunday

 Turkey will never give in to violence and acts of terror, and terrorists will “drown in their own blood,” an angry and sorrowful Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated on Sunday while condemning the brutal killings of 12 soldiers by terrorists from the PKK.

 Turkey’s opposition parties have pointed to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and its policies as the main factor responsible for the escalation of tension in the country. “Our soldiers’ battle, at the cost of their lives, shows Turkey’s commitment to its national unity. Political will, however, has weakened the fight. There is no doubt that our fight against the terrorist organization will prove successful. It is high time we say ‘stop’ to these treacherous attacks against our unity, solidarity, peace and fraternity. With these feelings and ideas in mind, I extend my condolences to the families of the soldiers martyred and hope that the wounded soldiers will get well soon,” Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said. Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli was harsher in his criticism of the ruling party. “The architects of this dark picture are Erdoğan and his government. Erdoğan and the AK Party are a great weakness in the fight against terror,” he said.

 A total of 349,010 students in Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) took the LYS-4 on Sunday, one of the five sessions of the Undergraduate Placement Examination (LYS), the second-round exam of the new university entrance system. The students had to answer questions on social science, including history, geography and philosophy, in the LYS-4, which started at 10 a.m. and took 135 minutes in total.

 Seven of the 12 soldiers who were brutally killed by outlawed PKK terrorists on June 19 were buried in their hometowns.

June 21 Monday

 Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD) Chairwoman Ümit Boyner said the state has to protect its citizens’ right to life and, failing to do so, should be held accountable. Boyner, putting the problem of terrorism on top of the list of the country’s problems, said TÜSİAD was saddened by the recent deaths of soldiers killed in attacks by the outlawed PKK.

 Members of the government and top military brass came together at a crucial terrorism summit to make some far-reaching decisions, including possibly conducting diplomatic efforts with the regional administration of northern Iraq to wipe out the terrorist PKK in Iraq. Turkey will also be working in closer cooperation with Iran and Syria against the terrorist organization.

 Funerals were held for five of the 12 soldiers who were killed by outlawed PKK terrorists on June 19.

 Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ stated that Turkish soldiers put up an epic fight in a clash with terrorists in Hakkari’s Gediktepe district on June 19. He compared the battle to the Turkish victory at Çanakkale in 1915. Speaking at a seminar for generals and admirals in Çanakkale, Başbuğ said: “A heroic epic similar to the one that Turkish history witnessed in Çanakkale in 1915 was written in Gediktepe the night before last. I saw that with my very own eyes during my visit to the outpost.”

 A defendant in the first Ergenekon case and Cumhuriyet daily writer and publisher İlhan Selçuk passed away at the age of 85 after a long battle with health problems. Selçuk, who was hospitalized at the Vehbi Koç Foundation American Hospital on Jan. 24, suffered from various illnesses. “He died of multiple organ failure at 13:15 despite all treatments and efforts,” the statement issued by the hospital following his death read.

 One soldier was killed and three villagers injured in a clash that erupted after the terrorist PKK attacked a military outpost in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır.

June 22 Tuesday

 Three people, including the daughter of an army officer, were killed in a roadside bomb attack on a civilian bus transporting military personnel in İstanbul. Twelve people were injured, but two died in the hospital hours after the attack, bringing the death toll of the attack to five. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), an offshoot of the terrorist PKK, claimed responsibility for the attack.

 Turkey must produce policies focusing on rationality concerning the problem of terrorism, CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu said. He met with President Abdullah Gül at the Huber Mansion in İstanbul’s Tarabya district.

 A new report by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) suggested that CDs and DVDs found among documents from a 2003 conference and containing an apparent military coup plan, titled the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) Security Operation Plan, are original. The report confirmed the findings of a previous TÜBİTAK report on the plan, which said the coup documents were drafted in 2003 and were not added to the military seminar documents later, as claimed by opponents of the Sledgehammer investigation.

 The Supreme Court of Appeals decided on Tuesday to not merge two terror cases, one against Col. Dursun Çiçek and the other against Erzincan Chief Public Prosecutor İlhan Cihaner.

 The five people who were killed in a heinous roadside bomb attack staged by an arm of the terrorist PKK on Tuesday in İstanbul’s Halkalı district were buried in their hometowns.

 Twenty-seven people were detained on suspicion of involvement in the roadside bomb explosion that killed four soldiers and a young civilian on Tuesday, Interior Minister Beşir Atalay announced. The suspects were taken to the İstanbul Police Department’s counterterrorism bureau for interrogation.

 Seven members of a family, including three children, were killed and two other people injured in a traffic accident in the Central Anatolian province of Konya on Wednesday.

 Key actors of the Balkan region, called by some a perpetual powder keg, reaffirmed in unison their joint political will to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic bodies at the end of a three-day regional summit held by NATO member and European Union candidate Turkey in İstanbul.

 Turkey and 11 other southeastern European nations denounced Israel for a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid convoy and demanded an international investigation into the attack which killed eight Turks and one American. “We emphasize our interest in an impartial, independent and internationally credible investigation into this matter,” said the İstanbul Declaration, the final declaration released at the end of the three-day summit of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) hosted in İstanbul.

 Prime Minister Erdoğan strongly criticized European countries that tacitly support the terrorist PKK or do not take the necessary measures to prevent it from working on their soil. Speaking before a luncheon Erdoğan hosted for the heads of delegations that participated in the SEECP summit in İstanbul, the prime minister criticized in strong terms external support of the PKK. He said the terrorist organization’s activities that target innocent civilians as well as security forces in Turkey equally threaten the people of the Balkans and the rest of Europe, too.

 Following an increase in terrorist attacks over the last couple of weeks, Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, known for his widely lauded messages of tolerance, intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding, issued a statement of condolence on Wednesday and cautioned people not to succumb to provocation in the face of brutal terrorism, which he said would serve the terrorists and their cohorts.

June 24 Thursday

 The National Security Council (MGK), bringing together the president, the prime minister and some members of the Cabinet with top military brass, convened to talk about new measures to take against the increase in terrorist attacks of the PKK. “Turkey’s will to continue the fight against the threat of terrorism until it is eradicated has once again been confirmed,” read the MGK statement.

 Sixteen individuals were apprehended in connection with Tuesday’s roadside bomb explosion in the Halkalı neighborhood of İstanbul and the assailant who detonated the bomb has been identified, İstanbul Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu said.

 The Middle Eastern and Neighboring Countries Fair kicked off in Gaziantep with the aim of further boosting cooperation and developing commercial ties in the region.

 Cumhuriyet daily columnist İlhan Selçuk, who died on June 20 in İstanbul, was buried next to the grave of his elder brother in the central province of Nevşehir following a funeral ceremony there on Thursday. In his will, Selçuk requested to be buried in the town of Hacıbektaş. The Hacı Bektaş Dergahı, where he was buried, is one of the Turkish Alevi community’s most revered sites. Selçuk’s brother, Turhan Selçuk, was buried there in March.

June 25 Friday

 In a move intended to find a widely approved solution to recently increasing acts of terrorism in the country, President Gül yesterday met with representatives from a number of civil society organizations at a presidential palace in İstanbul. Speaking at the end of the meeting, Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) Chairman Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu said all the NGOs agreed on two common points in the meeting. “We firmly condemn terrorism, and we believe that violence cannot solve anything. The second is that the government should not backtrack from taking steps to improve democracy and expand the democratic rights of individuals,” he said.