EU extends condolences to Turkey over Gaziantep attack, pledges counterterrorism cooperation

BRUSSELS/ANKARA

European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini delivers remarks on the EU new Global Strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington on July 21, 2016. AFP photo

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn have jointly offered their “deepest condolences” to Turkey over a suicide bomb attack on an outdoor wedding party that killed at least 50 people and wounded dozens of others.

The two also underlined Aug. 21 that Brussels and Ankara are “in a common fight,” while voicing the EU’s commitment to “together to protect security, democracy and peace.”

“Last night an explosion hit women, men, children celebrating a wedding party in the city of Gaziantep. More than fifty lives have been lost and many are injured. We extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed and wish a speedy recovery to all injured,” Mogherini and Hahn said in a joint statement released by the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey.

“Turkey has been dramatically targeted once again, and in a city - Gaziantep - that is a symbol of the pain caused to thousands of people from the conflict in Syria. The suffering of all the people hit by war, and terror, is our suffering,” they said.

“As the European Union, we express our solidarity and sympathy with the government and people of Gaziantep and of all Turkey. And we will continue to strengthen our cooperation with the Turkish authorities to prevent and counter terrorism. We are together in a common fight. We are all called to stand together to protect security, democracy and peace,” they added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has blamed the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for the bombing in the southeastern province of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria.