Another terrorist attack in Istanbul
At least eleven people were killed on Tuesday in the third major terrorist attack to hit Istanbul within the last six months. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has blamed the PKK for the bombing but ultimately it is he who is responsible for the wave of terror in Turkey, commentators point out.
Erdoğan's head already in the noose
Erdoğan's conflicts with the major powers and the war in his own country are inexorably leading him toward disaster, the daily Standart believes:
“The current developments in Turkey are the inevitable result of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's foreign and domestic policy. ... Events are spinning out of control, indicating that Erdoğan is running on empty. He is in conflict with all the major powers in the Middle East. The only countries with which Ankara has good, decent relations are China and Bulgaria. ... Turkey has long been at loggerheads with Syria, Iraq, Russia and particularly the US. On the domestic front a civil war is being waged against the Kurds, which is only worsening the dramatic situation in which Erdoğan finds himself. His head is already in the noose and the more he twists and turns, the tighter it gets.”
Support for Kurdish party only helps PKK
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has blamed the PKK for the attack. The HDP is the PKK's political arm and it now faces a major fiasco, the pro-government daily Star believes:
“The Kurds supported the HDP because they saw it as a political chance to persuade the PKK to lay down its weapons. … The Kurdish people have now understood that their support for the HDP doesn't serve that party but only the PKK. … We are talking here about a terrorist apparatus which is represented by 80 members in parliament and has joined forces with the PKK and thus lost its identity as a political party. … The terrorism in Turkey will naturally one day come to an end, but we will never forget this betrayal and it won't go unpunished.”
Turks are disappointed and almost out of reach
Targeted by terrorism Turkey feels more isolated than ever, Tages-Anzeiger comments:
“In recent times the impression many Turks had that an attack in Paris hurts Europe far more than an attack in Istanbul has been reinforced. This perception fits into a more complex image - that of great disappointment. … Erdoğan knows how to exploit this sense of disappointment for his own purposes. He knows it well. When he tried to bring his country closer to the EU in the first years of his term of office, no one in Europe gave him credit for it. Even Merkel insisted on keeping Turkey at a distance. Now that she is fighting for Turkey's support in the refugee crisis the country appears to be out of reach. Everything has changed in Turkey.”
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