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Turkey blast: Two dead and 100 injured after explosions hit Kurish part election rally Turkey blast: Two dead and 100 injured after explosions hit Kurdish part election rally
(35 minutes later)
Two people died and more than 100 were injured after two explosions rocked a large Kurdish party election rally in southeast Turkey on Friday, the country's Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker said. Two people died and more than 100 were injured when two explosions ripped through a pro-Kurdish election rally in south east Turkey.
The blasts occurred five minutes apart at the rally of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, or HDP, as party leader Selahattin Demirtas was preparing to address the crowd of tens of thousands in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast. Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish President, described the explosions as a “provocation” designed to undermine peace in the run up to Sunday's Parliamentary election.
It wasn't immediately clear how many of the injured were seriously hurt. Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu had earlier said around 50 people were injured in the incident and 20 to 24 of them were being treated in hospitals. His comments appeared to confirm fears the blasts were caused by bombs rather than faulty electrical equipment as the authorities initially claimed.
An Associated Press journalist at the scene said the first blast occurred inside a garbage container while the second, more powerful one was inside a power distribution unit. He said in a statement in which he expressed sadness for the victims that an investigation has been launched to find out who was responsible.
Rally organizers told the crowd that the explosions were due to a problem with the power distribution unit and urged calm. But Energy Minister Taner Yildiz later dismissed that, saying the blasts were caused by an “external interference” with the power unit, though he did not say whether he believed a bomb was involved. People carry a youth, wounded during an explosion at a pro-Kurdish Peopleís Democratic Party (DHP) rally in Diyarbakir (Image: Emre Tazegul/PA) The explosions went off as tens of thousands of people gathered in Diyarbakir for a rally organised by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).
The explosions come at a tense time, two days before Sunday's parliamentary elections in Turkey, in which the Kurdish votes will be critical. Guy Martin, a British photographer who witnessed the devastation, told the Reuters news agency that the blasts, which happened five minutes apart, originated in a rubbish bin and a power generator.
People carry a youth, wounded during an explosion at a pro-Kurdish Peopleís Democratic Party (DHP) rally in Diyarbakir (Image: Emre Tazegul/PA) The party is vying to pass the threshold of 10 percent of total votes required to take seats in parliament. If it succeeds, it could make it impossible for the ruling AKP to reach a supermajority in parliament. That would scuttle the AKP's ambitions to introduce a new constitution and change Turkey's parliamentary system into a presidential system that could give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan executive powers. "It was a heart-shaking, rib cage-shaking noise," he said of one of the blasts. “The most terrifying thing is that crush of people. It was chaos, I couldn't move, people were panicking."
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said authorities would investigate the cause of the explosions. One of the explosions went off close to a parade ground shortly before HDP Chairman Selahattin Demirtas was to address the crowd. Police fired water cannon to disperse people who remained at the parade ground after the explosion.
“Whatever is behind this incident — whether it was a power transformer explosion, an assassination attempt, an act of provocation — we shall investigate it,” he said. “I call on my brothers in Diyarbakir: Please beware of exploitation of the incident and provocations. No one should be involved in provocations.” Demirtas urged followers to remain calm and said: "We don't know the cause of the blast. It is thought-provoking that this occurred so close to the election.”
The rally was cancelled but a large group of youths remained at the site, protesting the explosions. Some threw stones at a police water cannon that moved in to disperse the crowd. Television footage showed people carrying the injured on stretchers as organisers of the rally for the pro-Kurdish HDP announced on loudspeakers that the explosion had been caused by a fault in a power generator.
Demirtas urged calm. Tensions have been high in the run up to the election between the HDP and the AK Party which has held a majority since 2002 but could, polls suggest, be ousted on Sunday. The HDP hopes to win its first seats.
“Whatever the cause, I invite the people to retain their common sense,” Demirtas told CNN-Turk television by telephone. “Whatever happens, Turkey is in need of peace.” Demirtas has said his party has been the target of more than 70 violent attacks during the campaign and two days ago nationalists clashed with HDP supporters at a rally in the northern town of Erzurum.
Demirtas said some of the injured lost limbs. President Erdogan, who used to head the AK Party, has accused the HDP of being a front for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which took up arms in 1984 in an insurgency that killed 40,000 people. Jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and Ankara launched peace talks more than two years ago.
The private Dogan news agency said the dead included a 16-year-old boy and a man in his 20s. It said several of the injured were in critical condition. If the HDP succeeds in its aim to reach the 10 per cent threshold needed to enter parliament in tomorrow’s elections, it will be a serious blow to the AKP’s goal to create the super-majority needed to change the constitution and grant Mr Erdogan more presidential powers.
Earlier this week, assailants fired on a HDP campaign vehicle, killing its driver. Last month, bombs at two local HDP offices injured six people in southern Adana and in neighboring Mersin. One of the AKP’s main election strategies is to harness the powers of social media and in doing so it has set up the New Turkey Digital Office where 180 content-makers, monitors and field communicators work in shifts 24 hours a day to spread positive messages about the party on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and almost every other social media network.
AP Supporters have hailed it as the AKP’s attempt to counteract the thousands of Gezi Park online activists who used the social media platform to organise the protests that hit the government two years ago. However, critics compare it to a Putinesque troll machine.
Gokhan Yucel, the young Oxford-educated head of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “digital army”, prefers to think of it as more like Obama’s social media strategy circa 2008.
“I am not the chief troll,” says a weary Mr Yucel, clearly tired of the question. “Look, we’re not hiding anything. If we were trolling, I wouldn’t invite journalists here.”