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MARXISTS CLAIM BOMBING OF U.S. EMBASSY IN TURKEY
By TIM ARANGO and SEBNEM ARSU
Published: February 2, 2013
ISTANBUL - A Marxist group with a history of political violence in
Turkey claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide bombing at the
American Embassy in Ankara the day before, releasing a statement
calling the United States "the murderer of the peoples of the world."
Associated Press
Mourners attended the funeral of Mustafa Akarsu, an embassy security
guard killed when a suicide bomber struck the U.S. Embassy in Ankara
on Friday.
The statement, which also denounced American foreign policy, was
released by the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, and a
translation was distributed by the SITE Intelligence Group, which
monitors the communications of extremist groups. The message, which
was posted on a Web site that has previously carried statements from
the group, condemned Turkey for its cooperation with the United States
and for its policy of supporting Syrian rebels fighting the government
of President Bashar al-Assad.
After conducting DNA tests, the Turkish authorities on Saturday
identified the man who detonated himself at the embassy, killing
himself and a Turkish guard, as Ecevit Sanli, 40, also known as Alisan
Sanli. Mr. Sanli was a convicted terrorist who had twice attacked
government facilities in Istanbul but was released from prison under
an amnesty program. Earlier Saturday, officials in the Black Sea town
of Ordu said he lived there.
The Ankara police said they had detained three people thought to have
helped Mr. Sanli and had found a handgun linked to the militant group.
They also released security footage from the embassy in which Mr.
Sanli was shown pretending to be a courier.
The statement by the group included two photographs of Mr. Sanli. In
one, he is holding an assault rifle, and a banner bearing the
hammer-and-sickle symbol of communism is behind him.
The attack, coming in the wake of the attack on an American diplomatic
mission in Benghazi, Libya, by Islamic extremists in September,
initially raised fears that it was the work of jihadists. That the
bomber has ties to a relatively minor Marxist group is likely to
challenge assumptions about the nature of international terrorism and
the risks to American interests abroad. American officials, however,
have not confirmed the identity of the attacker or a motive, and the
United States plans to investigate.
In a statement on Saturday, Ordu officials said Mr. Sanli spent four
years in prison after being arrested in 1997 for attacking a military
hostel and police station in Istanbul. He was released in 2001 under
an amnesty program for inmates with medical conditions, Muammer Guler,
the interior minister, said. Mr. Sanli reportedly had
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a brain disorder caused by malnutrition
that he suffered during a jailhouse hunger strike.
The authorities said Mr. Sanli lobbed a hand grenade during Friday's
attack just before detonating his explosives-packed vest, suggesting
that there were actually two explosions.
The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported that Mr. Sanli had fled to
Germany after being released from prison, and according to the
semiofficial Anatolian News Agency, returned to Turkey illegally only
a few days before the attack by taking a boat from a Greek island
across the Aegean.
The group has struck American and other Western targets in Turkey
before, including during the gulf war, and in its statement, the group
condemned NATO's recent deployment of Patriot missile batteries in
southern Turkey to protect against cross-border strikes from Syria.
In a report published several days before the bombing, Soner Cagaptay,
director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute
for Near East Policy, warned that the country's support of Syrian
rebels was rallying Turkey's extreme left.
"The country's political landscape still bears vestiges of violent
leftist movements from the 1970s, as well as deeply anti-American
ultranationalism," he wrote.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 2, 2013
An earlier version of this article misstated, based on information
supplied by the authorities, the year when Ecevit Sanli was released
from prison. It was 2001, not 2002.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/world/europe/marxist-group-claims-attack-on-us-embassy-in-turkey.html?ref=europe
By TIM ARANGO and SEBNEM ARSU
Published: February 2, 2013
ISTANBUL - A Marxist group with a history of political violence in
Turkey claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide bombing at the
American Embassy in Ankara the day before, releasing a statement
calling the United States "the murderer of the peoples of the world."
Associated Press
Mourners attended the funeral of Mustafa Akarsu, an embassy security
guard killed when a suicide bomber struck the U.S. Embassy in Ankara
on Friday.
The statement, which also denounced American foreign policy, was
released by the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, and a
translation was distributed by the SITE Intelligence Group, which
monitors the communications of extremist groups. The message, which
was posted on a Web site that has previously carried statements from
the group, condemned Turkey for its cooperation with the United States
and for its policy of supporting Syrian rebels fighting the government
of President Bashar al-Assad.
After conducting DNA tests, the Turkish authorities on Saturday
identified the man who detonated himself at the embassy, killing
himself and a Turkish guard, as Ecevit Sanli, 40, also known as Alisan
Sanli. Mr. Sanli was a convicted terrorist who had twice attacked
government facilities in Istanbul but was released from prison under
an amnesty program. Earlier Saturday, officials in the Black Sea town
of Ordu said he lived there.
The Ankara police said they had detained three people thought to have
helped Mr. Sanli and had found a handgun linked to the militant group.
They also released security footage from the embassy in which Mr.
Sanli was shown pretending to be a courier.
The statement by the group included two photographs of Mr. Sanli. In
one, he is holding an assault rifle, and a banner bearing the
hammer-and-sickle symbol of communism is behind him.
The attack, coming in the wake of the attack on an American diplomatic
mission in Benghazi, Libya, by Islamic extremists in September,
initially raised fears that it was the work of jihadists. That the
bomber has ties to a relatively minor Marxist group is likely to
challenge assumptions about the nature of international terrorism and
the risks to American interests abroad. American officials, however,
have not confirmed the identity of the attacker or a motive, and the
United States plans to investigate.
In a statement on Saturday, Ordu officials said Mr. Sanli spent four
years in prison after being arrested in 1997 for attacking a military
hostel and police station in Istanbul. He was released in 2001 under
an amnesty program for inmates with medical conditions, Muammer Guler,
the interior minister, said. Mr. Sanli reportedly had
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a brain disorder caused by malnutrition
that he suffered during a jailhouse hunger strike.
The authorities said Mr. Sanli lobbed a hand grenade during Friday's
attack just before detonating his explosives-packed vest, suggesting
that there were actually two explosions.
The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported that Mr. Sanli had fled to
Germany after being released from prison, and according to the
semiofficial Anatolian News Agency, returned to Turkey illegally only
a few days before the attack by taking a boat from a Greek island
across the Aegean.
The group has struck American and other Western targets in Turkey
before, including during the gulf war, and in its statement, the group
condemned NATO's recent deployment of Patriot missile batteries in
southern Turkey to protect against cross-border strikes from Syria.
In a report published several days before the bombing, Soner Cagaptay,
director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute
for Near East Policy, warned that the country's support of Syrian
rebels was rallying Turkey's extreme left.
"The country's political landscape still bears vestiges of violent
leftist movements from the 1970s, as well as deeply anti-American
ultranationalism," he wrote.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 2, 2013
An earlier version of this article misstated, based on information
supplied by the authorities, the year when Ecevit Sanli was released
from prison. It was 2001, not 2002.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/world/europe/marxist-group-claims-attack-on-us-embassy-in-turkey.html?ref=europe