On Friday evening, Sept. 20, national police headquarters and its guest house in the heart of Ankara were attacked by rockets. It was after business hours and no casualties were reported.
As soon as the news of rocket explosions broke, Emre Uslu, a prominent journalist from Taraf daily, tweeted, “This rocket attack to the police headquarters must be the work of leftist organizations, such as DHKP-C (Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front). They have attacked the police headquarters in the 1990s also.” DHKP-C, with its new name, was formed as a leftist, Marxist-Leninist political party in the 1970s. The party is considered to have been the culprit in several assassinations; hence DHKP-C is classified as a terror organization in Turkey, the US and EU. DHKP-C recently made international news with the suicide bombing of the US Embassy in Ankara on Feb. 1, 2013.
Subsequent news confirmed Uslu’s prediction. Within hours of the attack two suspects were tracked down, and engaged fire with the police force. One was shot dead and the other was wounded and captured. The suspects were armed and the dead one was identified as the man who had attacked AKP (Justice and Development Party) headquarters previously.
This is quite sad national news, and one would image it would generate a rally-around-the-flag moment with solemn feelings amongst Turks. That was far from the case.
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