Turkey’s business world condemns ‘barbarous’ Sultanahmet attack, global ‘terror flow’

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

REUTERS photo

Turkey’s top business bodies have condemned the suicide bomb attack in Istanbul’s touristic Sultanahmet neighborhood, calling for the country to stand together against such acts.

An Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant killed at least 10 foreign nationals, most of them Germans, and wounded 15 other people after blowing himself up at a tourist spot in Istanbul’s old city on Jan. 12.

Nabil Fadli, a 28-year-old ISIL militant of Syrian origin who was born in Saudi Arabia in 1988, blew himself up after blending into a tourist group of 33 German citizens on a visit to the Obelisk of Theodosius in Sultanahmet Square near the Blue Mosque in the morning hours of Jan. 12, when the popular square was relatively less crowded compared to the rest of the day. 

Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey’s (TOBB) chair Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu defined the act as a “barbarous attack against the Turkish business world.”

“The messages of panic, chaos and suppression that this sick mentality aiming to advance by claiming lives has been seeking to give were destroyed in the conscience of our sacred nation, as always,” he said.

The Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) also slammed the attack and expressed condolences to the relatives of people who lost their lives in the attack.

“This act, similar to other barbarous attacks that we have witnessed lately, was an attempt against the peace within Turkey. The fact that terror primarily targets democratic and open social order should not be ignored,” said the TÜSİAD in a written statement.

The statement called for a common stance by all humanity against terror which disregards boundaries, stressing terror’s threat against democratic social order as well as the rights and freedoms of citizens should not be tolerated.

Global terror threat

The Istanbul Chamber of Industry (İSO) released a statement condemning the “terror flow that has been striking the world.” 

“The act targeted innocent people in an historical spot, where civilizations meet,” İSO chair Erdal Bahçıvan said, adding the attack was “against all humanity and international values.”

Başaran Ulusoy, the president of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB), said any terror attack that limits humans’ freedom to travel is against humanity. 

“All people need to act together in unity and wholeheartedly against all terror organizations,” he said, condemning the terror attack in Istanbul.  

Accordingly, Turkish Hoteliers’ Association (TUROB) made a statement stressing this attack was “certainly targeting chaos in Islamic geography and conflict between civilizations.”

The statement recalled the deadly attacks in Paris and urged solidarity and cooperation between countries to prevent terror.

The Confederation of Turkish Craftsmen and Tradesmen (TESK) said the terror attack in Istanbul’s historic square was inhuman and could not be accepted. 

“The attack was not only against Turkey. Thousands of people from almost all nationalities visit Sultanahmet Square. We have condemned [those] who did this brutal attack,” said TESK President Bendevi Palandöken.