The Turkish government has vowed to avenge the victims of a twin bomb attack on Saturday night outside a football stadium in Istanbul that killed 38 people and injured more than 160 others.
Officials said the bombings, which have shaken a nation still struggling in the aftermath of a coup attempt and several attacks in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, this year, were likely to be the work of Kurdish separatists.
“Sooner or later, we will have our vengeance. This blood will not be left on the ground, no matter what the price, what the cost,” interior minister Süleyman Soylu said in a speech at a funeral for five of the officers killed, held at the Istanbul police headquarters.
The two bombings, using a car packed with 300kg of explosives and a suicide bomb, happened in quick succession at about 10.30pm on Saturday night in the Beşiktaş neighbourhood on Istanbul’s European side.
The attacks killed seven civilians and 31 police officers, and occurred two hours after fans had left the stadium, which hosted a match between Beşiktaş and Bursaspor.
“It was like hell. The flames went all the way up to the sky,” said Omer Yilmaz, who works as a cleaner at the nearby Dolmabahce mosque, directly across the road from the stadium. “I was drinking tea at the cafe next to the mosque. People ducked under the tables, women began crying. Football fans drinking tea at the cafe sought shelter. It was horrible,” he said.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, convened an emergency security meeting in Istanbul on Sunday afternoon. Earlier, after a visit to wounded people, he reiterated Turkey’s determination to combat terrorism.
“No one should have any doubt about our fight against terrorism,” he said. “We are the owners of this country and will not leave it to those scum if they aim to scare us with such attacks.”
In a statement posted on its website, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, claimed responsibility, saying two of its members died in the attack.
“Two of our comrades were heroically martyred in the attack,” the statement read. It said the attack was reprisal for state violence in the south-east and the ongoing imprisonment of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ party, or PKK. Authorities consider TAK to be a PKK offshoot.
Officials had earlier said initial signs pointed to the involvement of the PKK in the bombings. “The arrows point at the PKK. It is clearly a planned event. There will be an announcement once the investigations are over. We cannot say anything definite for now,” said Numan Kurtulmuş, the deputy prime minister.
The PKK, a separatist party that has been battling against the Turkish state for decades and is listed as a terrorist organisation in the US, has been implicated in several recent attacks across the country.
Tensions have risen steadily over the past 18 months after the collapse of peace talks between the government and the PKK, which the authorities accused of rearming in secret. Curfews and fighting in the predominantly Kurdish south-east of the country ensued.
Ankara is also concerned about Kurdish ambitions across the border in Syria, where PKK’s affiliate the People’s Protection Units (YPG) has expanded the territory under its control with US backing by seizing areas from Islamic State.
Those fears prompted Turkey to intervene militarily in Syria, sending in commandos and tanks to support Syrian rebels fighting Isis near the border. With Turkish aid, the rebels seized the Isis border town of Jarabulus and advanced south towards al-Bab, a town north of Aleppo.
The move has blocked a plan for Kurdish control of a wide stretch of territory in northern Syria, but has further increased tensions with the Kurds and their American allies.
In recent weeks, the Turkish government has also arrested a number of top Kurdish parliamentarians that it accuses of fomenting PKK propaganda, a step considered by observers as effectively killing off the peace process. They include Selahattin Demirtaş, whose People’s Democratic party (HDP) has drawn together an alliance of leftists, youth and Kurdish activists and has been nicknamed the “Turkish Obama”.
Though the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) of Erdoğan was the first to begin secret peace negotiations with the PKK and break the taboo surrounding the lifting of restrictions on the Kurdish language, it has more recently drifted towards an alliance with the country’s nationalists, who have adopted a hard line on negotiations.
Saturday’s attacks are likely to increase the tension and fear of instability that have endured since an attempted coup in July shook the country.
The prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, declared a day of mourning and ordered flags flown at half-mast to commemorate the victims of the latest attack, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.
