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Turkish parliament to probe bomb attack
that sparked riots
24.11.2005
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ANKARA, Nov 23 (AFP)
- 18h42 - The Turkish parliament voted Wednesday to
investigate allegations that members of the security
forces were involved in a bomb attack in the mainly
Kurdish southeast that has sparked deadly riots.
Opposition parties led support to the ruling Justice
and Development Party for the three-month inquiry
into the November 9 bombing of a bookstore in the
town of Semdinli that has rattled the government.
An angry crowd almost lynched three suspects after
the attack on the shop, owned by a former Kurdish
guerrilla.
Two of them turned out to be officers from the
gendarmerie -- military troops that police rural
areas -- and the third, who reportedly threw the
bomb, was identified as a former Kurdish guerrilla
turned informer for the security forces.
The incident came as a serious political
embarrassment for Ankara at a time when it is under
pressure to demonstrate its commitment to democracy
and the rule of law in its bid to join the European
Union.
The bombing also raised questions over whether
Turkey has been able to purge rogue elements from
the security forces, who were accused of committing
summary executions, extortion, kidnappings and
drug-smuggling during the early 1990s, the peak
years of the struggle against Kurdish rebels in the
southeast.
Weapons, hand grenades, a sketch of the bombed shop
and a list of people, including its owner, were
found in a car licensed to the gendarmerie which the
crowd seized outside the bookstore, Esat Canan, a
deputy from the main opposition People's Republican
Party told parliament.
Canan, who happened to be in Semdinli on the day of
the attack, said that armed men opened fire on a
group of officials, including himself, a prosecutor
and a police chief, as they inspected the car.
"We all know of similar incidents in the near past
in which crime groups linked to the state were
involved," Canan said. "Are we going to be a state
based on the rule of law and break taboos or are we
going to stay the same?"
The bomb blast claimed one life, while a second
person was shot dead in the ensuing confusion.
Another four people were killed in violent protests
and riots that erupted across the province of
Hakkari, where Semdinli is located, and other parts
of Turkey.
Canan charged that the riots were fuelled by a
widespread conviction that the incident would be
covered up after the authorities arrested only the
Kurdish informer and a soldier accused of firing at
the crowd while leaving free the other two soldiers
at the scene.
Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu promised "to shed
light on all aspects of the incident and bring to
justice whoever is guilty."
The government, meanwhile, removed from office the
Hakkari governor after he came under criticism from
locals for mishandling the unrest and accusing
Kurdish politicians of directing the riots.
Governor Erdogan Gurbuz was shifted to the northern
province of Tokat, whose Governor Ayhan Nasuhbeyoglu
was named to Hakkari.
During a visit to Hakkari on Monday, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was greeted by Kurdish
protestors calling on him to sack the governor.
Turkey's southeast has been the theater of a bloody
conflict between the army and the separatist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an armed group
considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the EU and
the United States.
The conflict has claimed some 37,000 lives since the
PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in the region
in 1984.
AFP
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