Commemoration for victims of Ankara bombing: “ISIS reorganizes in Turkey”

“Our struggle for justice, which has continued for 81 months, will not end. If peace is to come, it will come through our struggle,” said the 10 October Peace Association, paying tribute to the victims of the 2015 Ankara massacre.

On 10 October 2015, 104 people lost their lives and over 500 people were injured by an ISIS bomb attack that targeted a peace rally promoted by the Labour and Democracy Forces in the Turkish capital Ankara.

The 10 October Peace Association organised a commemoration in memory of the victims in the area in front of Ankara Train Station, the scene of the deadly attack, unfurling a huge banner with the photos of those killed.

In a statement after a minute’s silence, 10 October Peace Association administrator İshak Kocabıyık remembered the victims of the Suruç massacre, in which 33 people were killed on 20 July 2015. In the attack seven years ago, 33 mainly young people were killed by an ISIS assassin, 104 others were injured, some seriously. The attack occurred when 300 people gathered at the Amara Cultural Centre at the call of the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations (SGDF) to hold a press conference before leaving for Kobanê. The planned trip to northern Syria was supposed to be an act of solidarity. The young people wanted to bring children's toys and humanitarian aid supplies to the ISIS-destroyed city.

“Their path is our path, and their dream is our dream. What they wanted back then is now our debt which we will give back to them,” said Kocabıyık.

Pointing to the “reorganization of ISIS mercenaries in Turkey”, he continued, “Their images have been released, with arms in their hands and covers on their faces. The state, which tracks every single thing we write on the social media, says nothing about the ISIS organization in Turkey. Furthermore, if they happen to capture them by chance, they do not bother to release them in a few days.”

Remarking that dark and bloody times began with the ISIS attack in Diyarbakır on 5 June 2015, Kocabıyık added, “The suicide attack there was followed by that in Suruç on 20 July, and that in Ankara on 10 October. Our struggle for justice, which has continued for 81 months, will not end. With the commitment we inherited from the victims, we are determined to keep the struggle going. If peace is to come, it will come through our struggle. We will unite our griefs from Diyarbakır to Suruç, and we will never give up the struggle.”