In Ankara, the victims of the ISIS attack that targeted a peace rally four and a half years ago have been commemorated at the scene of the massacre today. The attack on 10 October 2015 killed 103 people and injured more than 500. Since then, relatives of victims and those injured in the attack, who have joined together in the "10 October Association for Peace and Solidarity", have been meeting every 10th of every month in front of the central train station in Ankara to commemorate the dead.

At today's demonstration, the 53rd vigil of the relatives, the chairperson of the association Mehtap Sakinci Coşgun announced that a memorial grove for the victims of the massacre will be built.

"Here, in the place where they died, they will live on, with a memorial grove in which 103 trees will symbolically grow," said Coşgun. The human rights activist also referred to the trial of one of the alleged perpetrators of the bomb attack and sixteen fugitives and said: "For the first time in Turkey's history, a trial for crimes against humanity is being held.”

Coşgun called on the public to observe the trial that will resume on 8 May.

Background

The attack on the peace rally promoted by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the left-wing trade union federation KESK under the slogan "Labor, Peace, Democracy" to demand an end to the attacks of the Turkish military on the Kurdish civilian population is the most serious terrorist attack in the history of Turkey. It took place at a time when President Tayyip Erdoğan was building up his one-man regime.

On October 30, 2014, the National Security Council adopted a plan to crush the Kurdish liberation movement. One of the subsequent massacres was that in Suruç on 20 July 2015, in which 33 young activists were killed by a suicide bomber. The terrorist organization "Islamic State" (ISIS) is responsible for both attacks. The perpetrators belonged to an ISIS cell from Adıyaman, which is also responsible for the attack in Amed (Diyarbakir) on June 5, 2015.