NEWS

  1. Main events in Turkey since Suruc attack
  2. Turkey stages first air strikes on Islamic State in Syria
  3. Turkey carries out first ever strikes against Isis in Syria
  4. Intelligence failure, negligence in deadly Suruç blast exposed in official document
  5. KCK’s Cemil Bayik: AKP is ISIS, ISIS is AKP
  6. Kurds clash with police in Istanbul after deadly Suruc terror attack
  7. HDP calls for mass participation in march for Suruc victims
  8. Amed Dicle Asks Important Questions About Suruc Massacre
  9. Turkey attack spillover of IS war on Kurds: experts
  10. ISIL’s Turkish bomber brainwashed in this teahouse, brother on run
  11. Suruc massacre highlights Turkey’s Islamic State dilemma
  12. Suruc bombings: Turkish President accused of not doing enough to help Kurds fight Isis threat across its border in Syria
  13. Kurdish settlement process on brink of collapse after Suruç attack
  14. One killed, over 290 detained as Turkish police raid suspected ISIL, PKK militants
  15. Deputy PM Arınç: Border Security System Will be Built
  16. Obama calls Erdoğan to extend condolences over Suruç bombing, discuss anti-ISIL cooperation

 

COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS

  1. Isis bombing poses political dilemma for Turkey
  2. Why Did Isis Attack Suruç?
  3. Suruç massacre: today we mourn, tomorrow we rebuild
  4. Suruç: Turkey’s 9/11
  5. Patrick Cockburn: Suruc suicide attack: Bombing shows Turkey is being sucked into the violence in Syria
  6. Deciphering IS’ strategy in latest Turkey attack
  7. Turkey’s decision on Kurds

REPORTS

  1. The Impact of the Syrian War on Kurdish Politics Across the Middle East

ACTIONS

  1. Petition: Help the Yazidi women and girls kidnapped by ISIS
  2. Petition: Free Stephen Kaczynski! Victim Of Illegal Arrest And Detention By Turkish AKP Regime

 

NEWS

  1. Main events in Turkey since Suruc attack
    24 July 2015 / Yahoo news
    Turkey launched Friday its first air strikes against Islamic State (IS) jihadists inside Syria following the killing of a Turkish soldier in cross-border clashes. Here is a recap of the main events in the area since a suicide attack killed 32 people in southern Turkey early this week.
  1. Turkey stages first air strikes on Islamic State in Syria
    24 July 2015 / Reuters
    Turkish warplanes attacked Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time on Friday, with President Tayyip Erdogan promising more decisive action against both the jihadists and Kurdish militants at home. The air strikes, which followed a phone conversation between Erdogan and U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday, were accompanied by police raids across Turkey to detain hundreds of suspected militants, including from Kurdish groups.
  1. Turkey carries out first ever strikes against Isis in Syria
    24 July 2015 / Gurardian
    Turkish fighter jets have struck Islamic State targets in Syria and the government has rounded up hundreds of suspected militants in a coordinated crackdown as the country deployed military force for the first time against the terrorist group. The bombing is a major tactical shift for Turkey, which has long been reluctant to follow the US-led coalition into taking military action against Isis. The office of the acting prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, said Turkish F-16 warplanes based in Diyarbakır had attacked three Isis targets with guided bombs at dawn on Friday, including what it described as headquarters of the militant group and an assembly point.
  1. Intelligence failure, negligence in deadly Suruç blast exposed in official document
    22 July 2015 / Todays Zaman
    A recently revealed official document belonging to the National Police Department clearly reveals that major negligence and an intelligence failure were the main reasons behind a recent deadly bombing, which cost the lives of 32 people in the southeastern town of Suruç on Monday. According to the document, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), summoned the organization’s militants in countries other than Turkey to join the fight, while instructing those in Turkey to remain as long as they offer logistics help to those coming from other countries to pass to Syria and Iraq where ISIL is leading a fight.
  1. KCK’s Cemil Bayik: AKP is ISIS, ISIS is AKP
    23 July 2015 / Kurdish Question
    Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council Co-President Cemil Bayık made significant assessments to ANF regarding the massacre perpetrated agains members of the SGDF (Federation of Socialist Youths Association) which left 32 people dead and over a hundred wounded. Holding the AKP responsible for the massacre, Bayık said the information, data and documents revealed so far have proved that AKP is ISIS, and ISIS is AKP.
  1. Kurds clash with police in Istanbul after deadly Suruc terror attack
    20 July 2015 / RT
    Turkish police deployed water cannon and tear gas to disperse a demonstration led by Kurds who were angry that central authorities were not able to prevent a terrorist act committed in a border town by a suspected Islamic State suicide bomber.
  1. HDP calls for mass participation in march for Suruc victims
    21 July 2015 / Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
    “Islamic State brutally attacked the internationalist youth group who met in Suruç on July 20. They had gone there to support the struggle for great humanity being waged in Kobani, and help rebuild the city.”

 

  1. Amed Dicle Asks Important Questions About Suruc Massacre
    21 July 2015 / Kurdish Question
    The young people who died or got injured in Suruç had one purpose: Going to Kobanê and joining the reconstruction of the town. Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF) members issued a press statement before going to Suruç. It had been public for a month that these young people were getting ready to go. Suruç residents, young people and non-governmental organization representatives greeted the youth in Suruç. They met with the district governor and told him that they would like to cross over to Kobanê. District governor kept them waiting by saying that only a few of them could cross over as opposed to the whole group.
  1. Turkey attack spillover of IS war on Kurds: experts
    21 July 2015 / Yahoo News
    A deadly suicide bombing in southern Turkey appears to be part of the Islamic State group’s war against the Kurds, and shows the country’s growing vulnerability to the conflict in neighbouring Syria, analysts say. The attack on Monday on a gathering of pro-Kurdish activists in Suruc along the Turkish-Syrian border, which killed at least 32 people, bore the hallmarks of the Sunni extremist organisation. “Thus far, even without an IS claim of responsibility, the group seems the most likely perpetrator,” said Charles Lister, an analyst at the Brookings Doha Centre.
  1. ISIL’s Turkish bomber brainwashed in this teahouse, brother on run
    23 July 2015 / Hurriyet
    The identity of the suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide bomber who hit Turkey’s southeastern town of Suruç has been confirmed by DNA tests while the exact locations where he was allegedly radicalized have also been discovered. Şeyh Abdurrahman Alagöz, a 20-year-old university student registered in Adıyaman province, has been identified as the suicide bomber who carried out the deadly July 20 attack at a municipal culture center in Şanlıurfa’s Suruç district, which killed 31 activists planning to cross the border to help rebuild the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane.

 

  1. Suruc massacre highlights Turkey’s Islamic State dilemma
    21 July 2015 / BBC News
    “I’m not well. I will not be well. Don’t be well,” tweeted Loren Elva, a survivor of the bomb attack in the town of Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border. Soon #Iyiolmayacagim (“I will not be well”) became a viral hashtag as thousands started tweeting about their anger at the suicide bombing that killed 32 people and injured more than a hundred. The fact that the dead were young people willing to cross the border to help rebuild war-stricken Kobane struck a strong chord. They were left-wing activists, but also a diverse group, drawn from towns across Turkey. Some suggested this was why they were targeted: to create a further sense of terror within the country.
  1. Suruc bombings: Turkish President accused of not doing enough to help Kurds fight Isis threat across its border in Syria
    22 July 2015 / Independent
    A suspected Isis suicide bombing on Turkish soil has plunged the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan into fresh crisis, triggering rioting, mass arrests and the execution of two police officers. Turkish authorities, already condemned for failing to prevent the passage of Islamists along its porous border with Syria, have identified the 20-year-old who detonated a bomb in the mostly-Kurdish border town of Suruc on Monday, killing 32 people.
  1. Kurdish settlement process on brink of collapse after Suruç attack
    22 July 2015 / Todays Zaman
    The Kurdish settlement process conducted between the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), along with other Kurdish elements, has been derailed, according to some politicians and experts, following a suicide attack that killed 32 people and wounded more than 100 in the southeastern town of Suruç on Monday. The talks between the interim Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which lost its majority in Parliament in the June 7 general election, the PKK, and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), had already been tense after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan adopted a stance of opposition.
  1. One killed, over 290 detained as Turkish police raid suspected ISIL, PKK militants
    24 July 2015 / Hurriyet
    Thousands of police officers have launched raids to arrest suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) following a wave of deadly violence in Turkey, killing one suspect and detaining more than 290 others. Backed up by helicopters, police raided addresses in 16 Turkish provinces in search of members of ISIL, the PKK and other militant groups at dawn on July 24, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said, noting that 297 people were detained.  Davutoğlu added that a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) was killed in a clash with police during an attempt to resist the arrest with a gun at a house in the Bağcılar district of Istanbul.
  1. Deputy PM Arınç: Border Security System Will be Built
    23 July 2015 / Bianet
    Government Spokesman Bülent Arınç explained security measures for Turkey-Syria border. Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç: “I can summarize this project as ‘Border Physical Security System’.”
    “The most important part is to prevent DAESH terrorists crossing the border and to take due precautions. A physical border security system will be built near Tukey-Syria border […] It’s not putting up walls. It will stop terrorists to come to Turkey, stop smuggling and enable refugees to pass security zone. This is a great project done by Military Electronics Industries (ASELSAN) and others. Our Prime Minister gave instructions for project to keep going.”
  1. Obama calls Erdoğan to extend condolences over Suruç bombing, discuss anti-ISIL cooperation
    23 July 2015 / Todays Zaman
    US President Barack Obama has called his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to extend his condolences over the death of 32 people in a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) bombing in the southeastern Turkish city of Suruç. A statement released from Erdoğan’s office on Thursday said the two leaders discussed ways of strengthening bilateral cooperation in efforts to prevent the entry of foreign fighters to Syria via Turkey, in addition to ensuring Turkey’s border security against ISIL.

 

COMMENT, OPINION AND ANALYSIS

  1. Isis bombing poses political dilemma for Turkey
    22 July 2015 / FT
    The bomb that ripped through a Kurdish cultural centre in Suruc near Turkey’s border with Syria on Monday was no random act of jihadi savagery. It killed at least 32 young left-wing activists and wounded scores of others, just as they prepared to cross the frontier to help with the reconstruction of the emblematic town of Kobani, where Syrian Kurdish fighters, aided by US air strikes, have been holding off the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) since last autumn.
  1. Why Did Isis Attack Suruç?
    21 July 2015 / Kurdish Question
    A bomb was detonated yesterday on July 20th at the Amara Cultural Centre, killing 32 people and wounding over a hundred. For many months, the Amara Cultural Centre in the centre of the border town of Suruc was a safe haven for Kobane refugees, volunteers, activists and journalists. The hub of organisation ran from this cultural centre, and the gardens were the perfect place to drink cay and offer a hand in the effort to support the refugees in the camps surrounding Suruc city.
  1. Suruç massacre: today we mourn, tomorrow we rebuild
    21 July 2015 / Roar Mag
    The bomb attack that took place at midday on Monday, July 20, at the Amara Cultural Center in Suruç will go down in history as a tragedy. Suruç is a border-town within 15 kilometers of Kobane, and has been the center for relief operations and the logistical hub of all support activity. To many, Amara was a place of sanctuary and refuge for refugees fleeing the conflict in Kobane for many months. It acted as the base of coordination for the relief effort at the dozens of refugee camps scattered across the city, and as a center for international solidarity and delegations visiting the area.
  1. Suruç: Turkey’s 9/11
    22 July 2015 / Todays Zaman
    We are aggrieved. We are hurt. We were hit in our heart in Suruç. Thirty-two young people there and one corporal in Adıyaman were ruthlessly killed on the same day. This is Turkey’s 9/11. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), this unspeakable menace, is now targeting Turks. Almost a year ago I wrote in the Radikal daily a column alerting the public opinion to this menace. Unfortunately, since then we have not seen the threat being taken seriously by the authorities. On the contrary, we have seen pro-ISIL websites, events and announcements being tolerated. We have seen the pro-government media equating the Democratic Union Party (PYD) with ISIL and have observed that officials were rather hesitant to denounce this serious threat. The result? The result was Suruç: Turkey’s 9/11.
  1. Patrick Cockburn: Suruc suicide attack: Bombing shows Turkey is being sucked into the violence in Syria
    22 July 2015 / Independent
    The suicide bombing which killed 32 and wounded 104 young people in the Turkish town of Suruc shows the increasing degree to which the political agenda in Turkey is dictated by its involvement in the war in Syria. The victims of the blast were on their way to the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani to build a children’s playground and day centre.
  1. Deciphering IS’ strategy in latest Turkey attack
    22 July 2015 / Al Monitor
    While money, weapons, people and all sorts of contraband freely flow across the border from Suruc, Turkey, to Syria, toys could not make it across. More than 30 young people who had launched a campaign to take humanitarian relief supplies to Kobani lost their lives July 20 in an apparent suicide attack just as they were briefing the media on their project. About 100 of the activist leftist young people also were wounded.
  1. Turkey’s decision on Kurds
    22 July 2015 / Todays Zaman
    Instead of supporting the Kurds in Kobani, Justice and Development Party (AKP) politicians gave the impression that they would be very pleased with an Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) victory against Kurds. Here, we are talking about an extremely brutal group that blows people’s heads off, burns prisoners alive and forces women and girls to be sex slaves. Remaining impartial or neutral between ISIL and Kurds is perverse, evil and cruel. The AKP could not even be neutral. A few days ago, a group of Kurdish youths was brutally attacked by an ISIL suicide bomber, killing 32 innocent civilians. It is obvious such attacks will continue.

REPORTS

  1. The Impact of the Syrian War on Kurdish Politics Across the Middle East, July 2015.

ACTIONS

  1. Petition: Help the Yazidi women and girls kidnapped by ISIS

 

  1. Petition: Free Stephen Kaczynski! Victim Of Illegal Arrest And Detention By Turkish AKP Regime.

 

 

 

Peace in Kurdistan

Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question

Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk

www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com

Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie  Sirinathsingh – Tel: 020 7272 7890

Fax: 020 7263 0596

Patrons: Lord Avebury, Lord Rea, Lord Dholakia, Baroness Sarah Ludford, Jill Evans MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Hywel Williams MP, Elfyn Llwyd, Conor Murphy, John Austin, Bruce Kent, Gareth Peirce, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, John Berger, Edward Albee, Margaret Owen OBE, Prof Mary Davis, Mark Thomas, Nick Hildyard, Stephen Smellie, Derek Wall