News / Interviews

Turkey suffering from internal security holes: Analyst

Tuesday, 15 March 2016 9:51 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 15 March 2016 9:50 AM ]

Police, firefighters and emergency services work at the site of a blast in Ankara on March 13, 2016. ©AFP

Press TV has conducted an interview with Huseyin Bagci, a professor at the Middle East Technical University from Ankara, about a bomb attack on a transportation hub in Turkey’s capital Ankara, which left at least 37 killed and 125 others injured.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: This is a sad day for Turkey and obviously this blast has been criticized and really condemned by all corners of the world. We’re looking at fourth or fifth incidents here and slowly but surely Turkey is sliding into experiencing these every so often. What can be done to prevent this? What is the Turkish government doing or not doing to prevent this from happening?

Bagci: It is sure that Ankara became the target of PKK terrorism once again. It is the heart of the country and it’s the third time within a couple of months and most probably in the coming days because of neighbors probably; there are some other attacks to be expected. The fact is therefore that Turkish army’s reactions in southeastern Anatolia fighting PKK is now coming back as the reaction of PKK in this case, walking bombs.

And the Turkish people of course at the moment are not happy with what happened, but the government it seems to continue to fight the PKK terrorism and there is no end in these coming weeks and months, probably the expectations are like this that the bombings will continue and the government has to take certain measures. The security weakness is definitely the case unfortunately.

Press TV: Do you think that the Turkish people in general are behind the government when it comes to them targeting the Kurds, whether it’s in Syria also in Iraq, because at this point the more these types of incidents happen, the more people are going to doubt whether the Turkish government is doing the right thing by bombing their positions.

Bagci: The answer has two questions: One, the Turkish people are definitely standing behind the government fighting the PKK, no doubt about it, but concerning Syria and Iraq it is another issue.

Turkey’s concern is more internal security and from this perspective, I think the Turkish people indeed support government’s policies like the entire world is standing now behind the Turkish government because terrorism is the fact of the country and it has to be fought.

On the other hand, of course we have to see how in the coming days the Turkish political parties react to this, including Kurdish party HDP. We will see this, but at the moment we can say that the people are supporting the government.

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