Bombing in Turkey of the US embassy

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21293598

Apparently they are blaming a banned Leftist movement (perhaps Devrim or someone else from Turkey could explain ... I know we have a couple).

Also as an edit, the title is "bombing in turkey of a US embassy" that should really be "bombing in turkey of the US embassy" since obviously there's only one in the country.


A suicide bomber has attacked the US embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara, killing a guard, officials say.
The blast, at a side entrance of the heavily guarded compound, sent debris flying into the street.
The US has warned its citizens not to visit diplomatic missions in Turkey until further notice.
No group has said it carried out the attack, but Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the bomber, who also died, was a far-left militant.
Mr Guler suggested that the bomber might have been a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front.
He also said the attacker was believed to have been a Turkish national.
Continue reading the main story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21293598#story_continues_2) At the scene

Golnar Motevalli Ankara
The police moved quickly to create a barricade a few metres from the site of the blast. They have cordoned off the area with bright yellow tape, and crowds of officers are still at the scene. Throngs of reporters and camera crews have been pushed back down the street by the police officers.
The embassy is in a district that is home to several diplomatic missions, as well as affluent residential areas, shops and restaurants. Worried residents have been passing by, trying to find out what has happened. The owner of a travel agent across the road from the embassy said he had seen the body of the attacker being lifted into the back of an ambulance.
It is still unclear who carried out the attack, but the Turkish capital has been hit by suicide bombings in the past. The last attack was in September 2011, and was blamed on Kurdish militants.

Turkey and the US have denounced the incident as terrorism.
Ankara was last hit by a suicide bombing in September 2011, in an attack blamed on Kurdish militants.
A number of illegal groups ranging from Kurdish separatists to leftist and Islamist militants have launched attacks in Turkey in recent years.
'Terrorist elements' US ambassador Francis Ricciardone briefed reporters outside the embassy shortly after the attack.
He said a guard at the embassy's side entrance had been killed in the blast at 13:15 (11:15 GMT), and a Turkish citizen had been wounded.
Turkish officials said the bomber had also died.
Other reports said three people were injured, one of them seriously.
Witnesses said a woman with her face covered in blood had been taken away in an ambulance.
The explosion blew the door off the entrance checkpoint and sent debris flying into the street.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a televised statement in which he called for a global effort to combat "terrorist elements".
The US state department said it was working with the Turkish police to make a full assessment of the damage.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65648000/jpg/_65648198_65648197.jpg
US ambassador Francis Ricciardone told reporters the situation was "very sad"

The owner of a travel agency opposite the embassy said he had seen a body being removed by ambulance. His agency's windows were blown out by the blast.
The area around the embassy was swarming with police, said journalist Golnar Motevalli in Ankara.
While the blast was very loud, she added, the damage seemed to have been limited to the vicinity and no smoke was visible afterwards.
The embassy building is heavily protected but the US has had long-standing plans to move its compound elsewhere for security reasons.
It was recently reported to be in the final stages of a deal to choose an alternative location.
The German and French embassies are situated close to the current building.

[Sasha]

I assume they are revering to the DHKC/P (former devsol) as far as I know the only leftist group in turkey that uses suicide bombers at times.
Other wise my money would be on Turkish Hezbollah or other Islamist groups.
The Kurdish and Maoist groups have other priorities at the moment.

[crazyirish93]

looks like you were right http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21305950

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Yea, most of the Maoist parties stick to guerrilla warfare. I don't want to sound like a liberal, but I always thought that alot of the assassinations that these ML groups carry out are purely disgusting. However it looks like this bombing at least was a good example of how principled terrorism should work, that is, it should only be aimed at the terrorists themselves.

[RedAnarchist]

I'm surprised that a Marxist group would use suicide bombers. Not that secular groups don't use such a tactic (there was a story of a guy, I think it was in Sweden, who drove a car bomb into his former workplace), but that it doesn't seem to fit with Marxism.

[Sasha]

Apperently DHKC/P is slowely turning into something more of a cult these days and lost much of their broader appeal, suicebombers would fit in with that development I guess.
Also, while suicide bombers are rare for Marxist parties they are more common for nationalist groups (take the Tamil tigers for example), I believe the DHKC/P took a sharp turn towards nationalism recently.

[Sasha]

Yea, most of the Maoist parties stick to guerrilla warfare. I don't want to sound like a liberal, but I always thought that alot of the assassinations that these ML groups carry out are purely disgusting. However it looks like this bombing at least was a good example of how principled terrorism should work, that is, it should only be aimed at the terrorists themselves.

Also the group now lost a precious militant for ever and only got a dead security guard and some symbolic property destruction to show for it, seems to me a waste of resouces, probably a drive by shooting or something would have yielded a better result.

[LeonJWilliams]

Very un-communist tactics. Depressing stuff.

[Comrade Samuel]

Huh....what a shame.

I was watching the nightly news the other night when suddenly one of the reporters says "a group of marxists have bombed the U.S embassy in Turkey because they see us as imperialists". Has anything else developed yet?

[Ravachol]

'Very uncommunist stuff'

What do people expect of a leftist nationalist group/cult? It has nothing to do with communism whatsoever.

[Paul Pott]

I'm not gonna insult the dead man, but he could have done better things for his cause that don't involve suicide, or even violence.

Also, by nature suicide bombings have to be carried out by the most dedicated, i.e. those that are needed the most. It's just not a good tactic.

[Ravachol]

Also, by nature suicide bombings have to be carried out by the most dedicated, i.e. those that are needed the most. It's just not a good tactic.

That's bollocks. A lot of suicide bombings are performed by very recent recruits coming from a desperate background who are then bombarded with ideological garbage, often in addition to being offered a substantial martyrdom sum to remaining family members.

[Fourth Internationalist]

Why couldn't he just attack the embassy without killing himself and without murdering another human being? Terrorist attacks don't bring sympathy to your cause.

[Leo]

The bomber was fatally ill with Korsakoff's syndrome - from hunger strikes.

The organization in question is a populist and nationalist one, with no emphasis on the working class whatsoever. The bombing itself is nothing less than pure idiocy, resulting in nothing but the death of this man and another working in the embassy.

Yet in any case, not that they haven't lost perfectly healthy, dedicated and young militants for nearly nothing, but this wasn't like that.

A special note to psycho: good guess, obviously, but this organization never had that much of a mass appeal / was always the "cult" it is (obviously it still is much more "massive" compared to many European organizations) and is pretty dark regardless with ties to who knows whom within the Turkish state.

[Ravachol]

The bomber was fatally ill with Korsakoff's syndrome - from hunger strikes.

The organization in question is a populist and nationalist one, with no emphasis on the working class whatsoever. The bombing itself is nothing less than pure idiocy, resulting in nothing but the death of this man and another working in the embassy.

Yet in any case, not that they haven't lost perfectly healthy, dedicated and young militants for nearly nothing, but this wasn't like that.

A special note to psycho: good guess, obviously, but this organization never had that much of a mass appeal / was always the "cult" it is (obviously it still is much more "massive" compared to many European organizations) and is pretty dark regardless with ties to who knows whom within the Turkish state.

I've also heard multiple stories of senior members collaborating with grey wolves in the controlling of European drug trade (mainly heroin) and the laundering of money obtained for the organisation through extortion of right-wing small businessmen (not that I give a shit about that though), exactly the kind of shit that got the INLA into a lot of trouble. While meanwhile younger members/fellow-travelers are taking the operational heat. I don't know what part of that is true and what parts of it are just rumors in certain milieus and within biased 'investigative crime journalism' but it wouldn't surprise me. It could also very easily be marginal elements within the same diaspora using the name to put muscle and fear behind their operations.

[Leo]

I've also heard multiple stories of senior members collaborating with grey wolves in the controlling of European drug trade (mainly heroin) and the laundering of money obtained for the organisation through extortion of right-wing small businessmen (not that I give a shit about that though), exactly the kind of shit that got the INLA into a lot of trouble.These I haven't heard of and I don't live in Europe but I can guess that they are true. What I've heard are darker stories though, involving the leader of the organization pointing out a rival who tortured him internally to the police, in a police car.

There are stories that while the main organization was working for the police, the splinter faction was working for military intelligence.


While meanwhile younger members/fellow-travelers are taking the operational heat.That I know - enough said.

[Paul Pott]

That's bollocks. A lot of suicide bombings are performed by very recent recruits coming from a desperate background who are then bombarded with ideological garbage, often in addition to being offered a substantial martyrdom sum to remaining family members.

Obviously this is not the case here. Unless you want to assume this group somehow has the same resources or modus operandi as, say, the Iraqi resistance years ago.

This guy was far from a new recruit. A suicide bomber recruited in war will be coming from different circumstances than someone from a terrorist cell that has an anarchist direct action mentality. That's the context here.

You see few leftist suicide bombers. Only the most dedicated would undertake that sort of thing.

[Sasha]

Obviously this is not the case here. Unless you want to assume this group somehow has the same resources or modus operandi as, say, the Iraqi resistance years ago.

This guy was far from a new recruit. A suicide bomber recruited in war will be coming from different circumstances than someone from a terrorist cell that has an anarchist direct action mentality. That's the context here.

You see few leftist suicide bombers. Only the most dedicated would undertake that sort of thing.


it is certainly never the leadership or their innercircle who does this, while all out suicide attacks like this are so rare among leftist groups it's difficult to say anything meaningful about but if one looks at the very common practice of desperado/terror attacks that are almost guaranteed to end in death or imprisonment as done over the years by urban guerrilla groups like RAF/japanese RedArmy/black september/ abu nidal group etc etc (almost always done to demand the release of some imprisoned leader and almost never to demand something more in line with their originally stated goals) it are almost always young, mentally unstable recruits ending up dead, sure it happens, like in this case, that older veterans who for a unrelated reason (terminal sickness, depression) want to die anyway and want to be of use to the struggle one last time/go out a martyr. the former is way more common than the latter though
a third and quite common possibility are so called black widows, survivors of state terror who want to avenge their loved ones.

[B5C]

I will admit to this. I don't like the DHKP/C due to the fact they attempted to kill my father and threaten to kill my family and others when I living in Izmir with my family in the early 90s.

[Nakidana]

Yea, most of the Maoist parties stick to guerrilla warfare.

And suicide bombings aren't part of guerrilla warfare?

This just goes to show that suicide bombings can be used by anyone regardless of ideology. I mean people in here are saying that suicide bombings are "un-communist" etc etc. Well do you think they're particularly Islamic? Suicide in Islam is illegal, but that doesn't keep militants in Iraq and Afghanistan from doing it.

It's just a tactic used by groups who wish to inflict massive damage.

EDIT: DHKP-C have said the motivation (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21305950)for the attack was US using Turkey as a puppet and have described US as a "murderer of the people of the world". Can't disagree with the analysis, but don't really think bombing the embassy will change anything apart from further alienating the DHKP-C.

[Os Cangaceiros]

The LTTE in Sri Lanka was another good example of a non-Islamic group that frequently used suicide bombers.

[Sasha]

Big splash today in the dutch news because the Turkish Inteligence claims the order for the attack was given from the Netherlands (where according to them the DHKC/P leadership is living) and because a dutch daily had an interview with two DHKC/P members in Turkey that "threatened" the dutch soldiers that are stationed there with the patriot missles.

So I guess there will be raids and extraditions soon, while dutch police and inteligence will continue to not lift a finger against the fascist greywolves that control the heroin trade here, are infiltrated in the social-dem party and regularly attack and kill on dutch soil political opponents.

[Ravachol]

Big splash today in the dutch news because the Turkish Inteligence claims the order for the attack was given from the Netherlands (where according to them the DHKC/P leadership is living)


Given that DHKP-C founder and leader Dursun Karataş lived in the Netherlands the last years of his life and died there (in the sleepy southern village of Etten-Leur) that's not that unlikely. Apparently Karataş together with some other DHKP-C cadres were active in Amsterdam in the '80s-'90s in extorting money out of Turkish heroin smugglers (quite a dangerous business I'd say) and MHP-affiliated turkish petit bourgeoisie. In the south of the Netherlands there have been several shootings (including a drive-by using automatic weapons in the city center) between Grey Wolves connected to the drug trade and DHKP-C affiliates. So the Dutch connection doesn't seem that far fetched.


So I guess there will be raids and extraditions soon, while dutch police and inteligence will continue to not lift a finger against the fascist greywolves that control the heroin trade here, are infiltrated in the social-dem party and regularly attack and kill on dutch soil political opponents.

Yeah the Dutch police and intelligence establishment are very good at leaving the Grey Wolves and their networks untouched, either because of some incestuous relationship (there have been several cases of Turkish-Dutch policemen who maintained close ties with the Grey Wolves networks) or, most likely, because the Turkish far-right criminal networks are well known and mapped out by the police and security services which probably gives them a good overview of satellite groups, connected criminal networks and the connected international drug and arms trade whereas some other 'ethnic networks' are apparently very hard to penetrate (ie. morrocan groups) and cracking down on a network that gives you a good information position might favor the rise of other groups upon which their hold is far less sturdy.