Home / The European Left condemns the terrorist attack in Turkey and worries about the repression of Erdogan
The Party of the European Left (EL) condemns terrorist attack in Istanbul, on the 12th January 2016, which caused at least 10 dead people and 15 injured, and show its solidarity to the victims, their families and the Turkish people who has suffered big terrorist attacks during the last month, as the one in Ankara last October, as well as strong repression measures by the security forces of Erdogan government, with dozens of dead victims after sieges of cities under the pretence of ‘fighting terrorism’. The antiterrorist law implemented last year, bans almost any opposition to the right-wing government policies.
No organisation has claimed responsibility for todays´ attack yet. ISIS is the usual suspect, as there are many jihadists linked with organizations in Turkey, thanks to the government policies which allowed them to organize freely until recent months. Even last month, BirGun newspaper revealed that the ISIS members which police declared as “wanted” were freely buying medicines from pharmacies using their ID,s. Furthermore, Prime Minister Davutoglu had declared that they have a list of potential suicide bombers of ISIS but they can´t arrest them before they take actions “because Turkey is a country with human rights, where people can´t get arrested unless they commit a crime” although there are hundreds of people in prison and prosecuted for expressing their protest and opinions. EL Vice-President Maite Mola is also arbitrarily prosecuted for taking part in a peaceful and massive demonstration against that law.
Few hours after the attack Erdogan expressed his willingness to acting strongly against all terrorist organizations. The Party of the European Left expresses its fear that the government will use this attack to increase the use of their antiterrorist law with the goal to attack the democratic opposition of the country and the Kurdish population.
We stand in solidarity with the progressive forces in Turkey and we are convinced that repression will not be able to stop terrorism. We ask for political, peaceful and democratic solutions.
