December 2016 Istanbul bombings

On the evening of 10 December 2016, two explosions caused by a car bombing and suicide bombing in Istanbul's Beşiktaş municipality killed 48 people and injured 166 others. 39 of those killed were police officers, 7 were civilians and 2 were perpetrators. The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) assumed responsibility, claiming that their members killed more than 100 police officers.

Background

Earlier in 2016, Turkey had been hit by a number of bombings carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK). The deadliest of these had been the Gaziantep bombing, killing over 50 people. According to Turkish T24 newspaper, this was the seventh terrorist attack in Istanbul in 2016. The Atatürk Airport attack was the deadliest attack to have occurred in Istanbul in 2016.

On 10 December 2016, the TAK took responsibility and claimed to have killed 100 police officers. In their statement, the group stated that Turkish people are not their direct target and their "Team Martyr Tirej" carried out the action with "utmost attention", but that no "comfortable life" should be expected in Turkey while the imprisonment of their leader Abdullah Öcalan continued. They accused the Turkish state of committing abuses in Kurdish regions, and attributed the chaos to the Turkish ruling-party AKP.

Bombings

The first explosion was a car bombing in front of the Vodafone Arena. About of explosives with iron pellets were used in the attack. It was aimed at a group of riot police which had overseen the spectators of a match leaving the station; the attack took place after the spectators had left. It was reported by NTV that the bombing targeted a police vehicle leaving the stadium. A football match of the 2016–17 Süper Lig between Beşiktaş JK and Bursaspor had taken place around one and a half hours before the explosion and the bombings occurred in the exit for Bursaspor supporters. Bursaspor released a statement from its official Twitter account, saying that none of its supporters had been injured.

The second explosion was a suicide bombing at the nearby Maçka Park. This took place 45 seconds after the first one and was followed by police gunshots. It occurred as a person wearing a coat and carrying a backpack was ordered to stop by the police at the entrance of the park, but blew themselves up before they could be apprehended, killing four police officers and one civilian on the spot. The sounds of the bombing could be heard from as far away as Üsküdar on the Asian side.

Beşiktaş JK released statements identifying two of the people that were killed: Vefa Karakurdu, the head of security of Vodafone Arena and a BJK congress member and Tunç Uncu, an employee of the local BJK shop. Another of the victims was Berkay Akbaş, a medical student studying in Ankara who had been visiting Istanbul and happened to be passing in front of the stadium in a car during the attack. Police victims include Adem Oguz, Adem Serin, Ali Aksoy, Durmus Ocal, Hasan Bilgin, Ilker Uylas, Kadir Yildirim, Mehmet Atici, Metin Duzgun, Mustafa Ozturk, Yasin Ike, Suleyman Sorkut, Okan Dogan, Soner Idil, Mehmet Zengin, Oguzhan Duyar and Hamdi Dikmen.

Aftermath

RTÜK, the Turkish broadcast regulatory authority, imposed a temporary broadcast ban on the bombing except for officially released information. Six prosecutors were immediately tasked with investigating the attack. 13 people were arrested in the following hours in relation to the attack. Major roads in the city were closed after the attack; these included roads linking Ortaköy to Beşiktaş, Karaköy to Dolmabahçe and Gümüşsuyu to Dolmabahçe.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan released a statement on 11 December 2016 at around 01:30 local time, officially confirming deaths for the first time but not specifying a number. He also added that the aim of the attack was to maximize the death toll. In his statement, Erdoğan wrote that the organization that perpetrated the attack was not important as "all terrorist organizations, including PKK, DAESH or FETÖ strike Turkey with the same goals". He also criticized unspecified Western countries by accusing them of "supporting terror".

According to Mark Lowen, the BBC
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