Bomb attacks kill seven, wound 224 in southeast TurkeyAnkara, 18 August 2016 (MIA) - Two bomb attacks blamed on Kurdish militants killed seven members of the security forces and wounded 224 people in southeast Turkey on Thursday, officials and security sources said, in a renewed escalation of violence across the region.
A car bomb ripped through a police station in the city of Elazig at 9:20 a.m. (0620 GMT) as officers arrived for work. Three police officers were killed and 217 people were wounded, 85 of them police officers, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.
Offices in the police station were left in ruins and filled with smoke after the bomb exploded in front of the complex, destroying part of the facade, CNN Turk footage showed.
Less than four hours later, a roadside bomb believed to have been planted by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants tore through a military vehicle in the Hizan district of Bitlis province, security sources said.
They said the blast killed three soldiers and a member of the state-sponsored village guard militia and wounded another seven soldiers.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but Yildirim said there was no doubt they were carried out by the PKK, deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, Reuters reports.
"The (PKK) terror group has lost its chain of command. Its elements inside (Turkey) are carrying out suicide attacks randomly wherever they get the opportunity," Yildirim told reporters in Elazig.
"We have raised the state of alarm to a higher level," he said at the scene of the attack, where a crowd chanted "Damn the PKK!"
The PKK has carried out dozens of attacks on police and military posts since 2015 in the largely Kurdish southeast in its fight for greater autonomy for Turkey's 15 million Kurds.
Elazig, a conservative province that votes in large numbers for the ruling AK Party, had been spared violence until now.
Video footage showed a plume of black smoke rising above the city after the blast, which uprooted trees and gouged a large crater outside the police complex, which is situated on a busy thoroughfare in the city of 420,000 people.
In Van province, further east, two police officers and one civilian were killed and 73 people were wounded late on Wednesday when a car bomb exploded near a police station, the local governor's office said in a statement.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack in Van, a largely Kurdish province on the Iranian border. The Van governor's office said the PKK was responsible.
The southeast has been scorched by violence since a 2 1/2-year ceasefire with the PKK collapsed in July last year. Thousands of militants and hundreds of soldiers and police officers have been killed, according to official figures. Rights groups say about 400 civilians have also been killed.
On Thursday, PKK militants also attacked a police checkpoint in the southeastern town of Semdinli, near the Iraqi and Iranian borders, wounding two police officers, Dogan news agency said.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in violence since the PKK first took up arms in 1984. lk/15:40
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Erdogan blames Gulen followers for role in bomb attacks
Ankara, 18 August 2016 (MIA) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday blamed followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for playing a role in a series of bomb attacks in eastern Turkey blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Reuters reports.
In a speech broadcast live on television, Erdogan said Turkey was facing joint attacks by various terrorist organisations who act together. He said that Gulen's followers were complicit in attacks by the Kurdish militants that killed seven members of security forces and wounded 224 people in the southeast on Thursday.
Ankara blames Gulen for the failed July 15 putsch when a group of rogue soldiers attempted to overthrow the government, commandeering tanks, planes and helicopters. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has denied the charges.
Ideologically, Gulen, an Islamic cleric, has little in common with the leftist, secular PKK, which seeks autonomy for Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. More than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have died since it took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. It is considered a terorist organisation by the United States, Ankara and Europe. lk/18:15
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Kosovan President Thaci pleads with opposition to ratify border deal with Montenegro
Pristina, 19 August 2016 (MIA) - Following a visit by United States Vice President Joe Biden, Kosovan President Hashim Thaci pleaded with the opposition to respect his call and to ratify a border demarcation treaty with Montenegro. The agreement, which Thaci can't pass through Parliament with the Government coalition alone, is seen as possibly obstructing Montenegro's membership in NATO and both US and the European Union called on Kosovo to ratify it.
"We will confirm our geostrategic orientation and our partnership with the United States, our Western European allies and our Euro-Atlantic integration by voting for this treaty. Don't endanger your own and the future of Kosovo for political reasons", said Thaci speaking to the opposition members in Parliament.
Another disputed agreement is the one to form an association of majority Serb municipalities in the north of Kosovo, which the opposition blocks fearing it may lead to secessionism. Biden called for this agreement to be implemented as well.cc/11:00
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Greece registers 261 new migrants arriving at its islands
Athens, 19 August 2016 (MIA) - Greek coast guards recovered 173 refugees and migrants from the waters of the Aegean in the past 24 hours, and the total number of new arrivals from Turkey into Greece stood at 261.
The slow trickle of people into Greece has continued numbering in the low hundreds per day through the summer, adding to the more than 50.000 people believed to be in Greece after the end of the 2015-2016 migrant crisis. Following the closure of the Balkan route in early 2016, arrivals in Greece dropped almost to nothing, from a high of about 10.000 people at the height of the crisis. But soon after the flow resumed, made up mostly of young, male migrants who believe they will be able to make their way through the closed Balkan borders illegally.cc/11:28
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Dozens of Turkey academics held in post-coup crackdown
Istanbul, 19 August 2016 (MIA) - Turkey on Friday detained dozens of academics suspected of backing Fethullah Gulen, the alleged mastermind of last month's failed coup, while pressing ahead with raids on businesses linked to the US-based Muslim preacher, AFP reported.
Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 84 academics nationwide, the private Dogan news agency reported, while the state-run Anadolu agency said Istanbul authorities were separately hunting 62 academics from the city's main university.
A total of 74 scholars had been detained so far in both operations, media said.
A large majority of the suspects in the nationwide raids were from Selcuk University in Konya, central Anatolia -- a conservative bastion of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) -- including the university's former rector, Professor Hakki Gokbel.
To the alarm of its Western partners, Turkey has pressed ahead with a vast crackdown on alleged coup plotters in the wake of July 15 military action seeking to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said this week that more than 40,000 state employees had been detained in the purge, with more than 20,000 remanded in custody.
More than 5,000 civil servants have been dismissed and almost 80,000 others suspended, he added.
Gulen, a former Erdogan ally, has a powerful network of influence in institutions such as the judiciary and police and has long been accused of running a "parallel state" in Turkey.
The reclusive cleric, who has lived in self-exile in the United States since 1999, strongly denies he was behind the coup attempt.
Police on Friday widened their probe into alleged Gulen-linked businesses, issuing arrest warrants for 18 more suspects, bringing the total number of those being searched to 205, Dogan reported.
Police launched mass raids Thursday in the commercial hub Istanbul and 18 other provinces into companies with suspected ties to Gulen -- the biggest crackdown on business since the failed putsch, with prosecutors ordering their assets to be seized.
Dozens were detained including Omer Faruk Kavurmaci, CEO of the Aydinli Group clothing retailer and son-in-law of Istanbul mayor Kadir Topbas, an AKP member.
Police found books written by Gulen during a search of the CEO's offices, media reports said.
In a series of tweets posted on his official account, Topbas said the judicial process would reveal whether his son-in-law was guilty.
"My son-in-law will receive the punishment he deserves if he had acted contrary to his testimonies," he wrote.
"I have a clear stance as someone who has walked shoulder to shoulder for 42 years with our president Mr Erdogan."
Dogan reported that Friday's fresh raids targeted the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (Tuskon), which has 55,000 members. Prosecutors were already seeking its president, Rizanur Meral.
The suspects are accused of "membership in a terrorist organisation" and "financing the activities" of Gulen.
Erdogan has vowed to cleanse the state from the "cancer" of Gulen's influence.
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