ISTANBUL // A remote-control bomb killed five people in an attack on a convoy carrying military personnel and their relatives near the international airport of Turkey's metropolis Istanbul yesterday.
Turkish politicians and generals are coming under growing pressure to find ways to avert a further escalation of the Kurdish conflict, which has plagued the country for almost 30 years.
The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK, claimed responsibility for the attack and warned civilians to stay away from army targets, according to a statement carried by pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency. The TAK is a suspected sub-group of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a rebel organisation that has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984.
Four soldiers and the 17-year-old daughter of a serviceman died in the blast that ripped open the last of three white busses carrying members of the Jandarma, a paramilitary force belonging to the armed forces and charged with police duties outside Turkey's metropolitan areas. The blast, which also injured 10 soldiers, was triggered by a mobile phone, police said. After the explosion, police sealed off the area and searched for a possible second bomb.
"The terror has reached the cities," the NTV news channel said. Yesterday's attack took place near the site of another attack on June 8, when a bomb blew up a police bus, injuring 15 officers. The TAK claimed responsibility for that attack and said it was "just the beginning" of a new bombing campaign.
Turkish experts say the PKK created the TAK in order to have an instrument to attack civilian targets without being blamed for the violence. The PKK has denied this, but the TAK regards Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed PKK leader, as its leader and steps up its attacks whenever the PKK does so.
In a meeting with his lawyer on the prison island of Imrali near Istanbul, where he is serving a life sentence, Mr Ocalan said last month he was withdrawing from what he called his efforts to bring a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question because the Turkish state would not negotiate with him. At the same time, the PKK said it was planning new attacks.
Since then the rebels have killed dozens of soldiers in several attacks in eastern and south-eastern Anatolia, 13 since last weekend, while the military said it killed 21 PKK fighters since June 14.
By escalating its attacks, the PKK wants to force Ankara to accept Mr Ocalan as an interlocutor. The Turkish government has consistently rejected that demand. In an emergency meeting on Monday, the political and military leadership said it would step up its fight against the PKK.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, has come under fire from Turkish and Kurdish nationalists alike for trying to solve the Kurdish conflict by a programme of reforms called "Democratic Opening". The plan, which includes an extension of language rights for Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds, has been criticised as a sell-out to Kurdish separatism by Turkish nationalists, while Kurdish politicians say it does not go far enough.
In a speech yesterday Mr Erdogan said he would not abandon the "Opening" and called on the opposition parties to co-operate with the government. At the same time, he again rejected talks with Mr Ocalan or the PKK. "The terrorist organisation is not the representative and spokesman of my Kurdish brothers," he said. "It never was and never will be." But Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the right wing Nationalist Movement Party yesterday said the "Opening" was a "project of treason".
But the pressure on the politicians to do something is mounting. Comparing the years since 1984, when the PKK took up arms, to a "horror movie", Umit Boyner, the president of the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association, or Tusiad, a politically powerful business organisation, called on all political parties to come together. "Terror has once again become the most important item on Turkey's agenda," she said earlier this week.
In an effort to find a way out of the spiralling violence and political impasse, some prominent commentators of the mainstream press in Turkey have started to think the unthinkable. Semih Idiz, a respected columnist of the Milliyet daily, reminded his readers that the British government solved the conflict in Northern Ireland by talking to the IRA.
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While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
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Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.
Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.
The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.
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Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.