Turkish PM visits scene of Ankara attack

ANKARA

AA Photo

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu visited the scene of a Feb. 17 car bombing targeting a military convoy in Ankara that killed 28 people.

Davutoğlu attended a funeral ceremony at the Gülhane Military Medical Academy (GATA) on Feb. 19 before proceeding to the scene of attack, where a convoy of military vehicles was targeted by a suicide bomber as it passed through the administrative center of the Turkish state, close to parliament, government buildings and the country’s military headquarters.

The prime minister laid 28 carnations for the memory of 28 victims and prayed, accompanied by Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz and Interior Minister Efkan Ala who also laid carnations. 

A group of ambassadors to Ankara, including British Ambassador Richard Moore and German Ambassador Martin Erdmann, also visited the site of the attack to leave carnations in memory of the blast’s victims.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy shared a picture of the moment when Ambassador John Bass left carnations at the site at 3.30 p.m. on Feb. 19.

“Ambassador Bass paid his respects to the victims of the recent horrific terrorist attack in #Ankara,” the tweet said. 

The side street where the explosion took place is still closed to traffic.

The massive blast struck five buses carrying military service personnel when they stopped at a traffic light in the center of the capital. The attack was the latest in a string of deadly strikes that have rocked Turkey since last summer and one of the deadliest assaults targeting the military in the NATO member state in recent years.

Davutoğlu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan both said the Ankara attack was a joint operation of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in cooperation with the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the militia forces of Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD).