Identification of Ankara bomber muddled by faulty communication
Debate over the identity of the February suicide bomber in Ankara reveals flaws in authorities' communication.
The Feb. 17 suicide bombing in Ankara that targeted government and military personnel will be remembered as Turkey’s first “gray” terror act. Authorities wanted to consider it a black-and-white case. But faulty, murky communication about the attacker's identity leaves it gray.
The morning after the attack, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu clearly and firmly announced that the People's Protection Units (YPG), which it says is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was behind the attack. He said there was concrete evidence that the perpetrator was Salih Neccar and that he was linked to the YPG.
After Davutoglu’s statement, news reports identified the perpetrator as Salih Neccar, a Kurd from Hasakah, Syria, born in 1992.
While initially most people accepted such a high-level and definitive declaration from Ankara as factual — although questioning its speed — another version emerged two days later. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) dismissed Ankara’s identification of the attacker as Salih Neccar of the YPG and instead claimed the attacker was Turkish citizen Abdulbaki Sonmez of Van province. The TAK also released a photograph of Sonmez and a short biography.
