This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
Turkey blocks Twitter to stop broadcast of Suruç bombing images
Turkey releases bombing suspect details as Twitter temporarily blocked
(about 1 hour later)
Turkey has blocked access to Twitter to prevent the broadcast of images of the bombing on Monday that killed 32 people, the state-run Anadolu Agency has said
Turkish officials have released the identity of the main suspect in a suicide bomb attack on Monday as the country temporarily blocked Twitter in an attempt to stop images of the blast circulating online.
The government was also trying to block Twitter users from calling for protests against the government for not doing more to prevent the bombing, the agency said.
Officials said DNA evidence points to Seyh Abdurrahman Alagöz, 20, a university student whose ID card was found at the scene of the bombing.
Officials had raised concerns that the bombing in the town of Suruç is part of a campaign of retaliation by Islamic State for a recent crackdown on its operations in the country.
At least 32 people died in the explosion in Suruç, near the Syrian border. The bomb hit a cultural centre in the small, predominantly Kurdish town, where hundreds of members of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations had gathered for a press briefing before a visit to the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Kobani to help with the reconstruction of the destroyed town.
Turkish officials say they have detained more than 500 people suspected of working with Isis in the last six months. Officials say an operation this month netted 21 terrorism suspects in an investigation of recruitment networks in multiple parts of the country.
According to Turkish media reports, Alagöz was recruited by Islamic State in his native city of Adiyaman more than six months ago. Hundreds of young men from Adiyaman are said to have joined jihadi groups in Syria, and local residents, often desperate parents, have repeatedly accused the Turkish government of turning a blind eye to the threat.
Protests have erupted in Istanbul and other cities since the bombings, with demonstrators shouting slogans blaming the government for the attack.
Thousands of foreign fighters, many of them Turkish nationals, have crossed the Turkish-Syrian border to join Isis and other jihadi groups over the past few years, fuelling accusations from the opposition that the government is looking the other way in the hope of seeing the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, toppled at any cost. Turkey’s Nato allies have repeatedly urged it to tighten security at the 900km-long border with Syria.
On Tuesday, police detained 30 people before they could march to a local ruling party office in Istanbul. Protesters also threw fireworks as police officers attempted to disperse the crowd at another protest in the city.
The bomb on Monday also drew harsh criticism for the Justice and Development party’s (AK) Syria policies as a whole.
Earlier, a court in Suruç issued a ban on the publication of images related to the bombing in the media, including the internet and social media platforms, and ruled that access be barred to internet sites that do not comply with the ban, Anadolu reported.
Haluk Koç, the deputy chair of the main opposition Republican People’s party, said at a press conference on Tuesday: “We have constantly noted the failures in Turkey’s foreign policy choices in the face of the civil war in Syria. Turkey has looked on [as it has become a] new Peshawar as radical groups have been encouraged and are running wild. Now, we are passing through days which prove the saying ‘sow the wind and reap the whirlwind’ correct.”
A government official said Turkey had asked Twitter to remove 107 URLs with images of the aftermath of the bombing. Twitter had removed some 50 of the URLs and was working to remove the remaining problematic URLs.
The country’s acting prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, dismissed concerns of a security vacuum and rejected all accusations of ignoring the Isis threat.
The official said he expected the URLs to be removed soon and for access to be restored. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of rules that bar officials from speaking to journalists without authorisation.
He told a press conference in Şanliurfa province: “Turkey and AK party governments have never had any direct or indirect links with any terrorist group and have never showed tolerance to any terrorist group.”
Turkey has periodically blocked social media in the past. Earlier this year the government ordered a temporary block on Twitter and YouTube during a hostage crisis in an Istanbul courthouse.
Protests erupted in several Istanbul districts and in other Turkish cities on Tuesday night as people took to the streets to condemn the government’s stance on Syria and its perceived inaction concerning Isis activity inside Turkey. “Murderer Islamic State, collaborators Erdogan and AKP,” protesters chanted in the Asian Istanbul district of Kadiköy before police dispersed them using teargas and water cannon. Two police officers were wounded, reportedly by gunfire, as protests turned violent in the city of Mersin. At least 11 people were detained by Turkish police.
Those sites were also blocked last year after audio recordings of a secret security meeting or tapes suggesting corruption by government officials were leaked on the social media sites.
Two police officers were found dead, having been shot in the head, in a house in Ceylanpinar, a small town on the border with Syria, about 160km away from Suruç. It was not immediately clear if the killings were related to the wider unrest in the region, according to local sources cited by Reuters.
Turkey’s highest court, however, overturned those bans, deeming them to be unconstitutional.
The Twitter block is expected to be lifted soon. According to the Turkish media, the ban was issued for 106 Twitter posts that contained images of the aftermath of the bombing, 53 news portal websites and one YouTube video. Twitter had already removed about 50 of the URLs and said the remaining posts would also be withdrawn.
Previous moves by Turkish authorities to block the social media networks have provoked widespread criticism by western governments and human rights organisations.
A senior government official told Reuters on Wednesday that the suspect in the bombing was a 20-year old ethnic Kurd from the town of Adiyaman who had illegally travelled to Syria last year.
Speaking anonymously, the official said the suspect had links with another alleged bomber who attacked a pro-Kurdish political rally days before a the Turkish general election on 7 June.
Many of Turkey’s Kurds and opposition supporters suspect the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the ruling AK party of covertly backing Isis against Kurdish fighters in Syria, something the government has repeatedly denied.
“Murderer Islamic State, collaborator Erdoğan and AKP” some of the protesters chanted as they marched down a major shopping avenue in Istanbul’s Kadıköy neighbourhood, before police fired tear gas and water cannon when they refused to disperse.
There were also protests overnight in the capital, Ankara, where demonstrators carried pictures of those killed in the Suruç attack as well as banners of the youth federation of which many of the victims were members.
Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, on Tuesday rejected accusations that Turkey had tacitly supported Isis and had unwittingly opened the door to the bombing. He has said, however, that initial evidence suggests Isis was responsible for the attack.
Meanwhile, two Turkish police officers has been found shot dead in the town of Ceylanpinar on the Syrian border.
The reason for the deaths was not immediately clear. The deaths came as Turkish police detained at least 11 people overnight as anti-government protests turned violent in Istanbul and other cities. The two officers were found dead with bullet wounds to the head in the house they shared, the security sources said.
Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party politician Ziya Çalışkan, who represents Şanlıurfa, said the incident did not appear to be terror-related, citing local sources.
