Officials in South, Southeast Asia Deplore Terrorist Attack in Turkey

BenarNews Staff
2016.06.29
1606-istanbul-reax-620.jpg The daughter of Siddik Turgan, who was killed in the attack on Istanbul’s international airport, reacts as her father’s coffin passes during his funeral in Istanbul, June 29, 2016.
AFP

Asian governments Wednesday joined a worldwide chorus of condemnation against Tuesday night’s terrorist attack at Istanbul’s international airport, which killed at least 41 people and injured 239 others and which Turkey blamed on Islamic State, according to the latest reports.

As the Turkish people began to bury loved ones who were killed at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Europe’s third busiest airport, when three suspected IS suicide bombers opened fire and blew themselves up, condolence messages poured into Turkey from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Bangladesh, and many other countries.

The attack “ripped humanity,” Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said in a message posted on Twitter.

“My deep condolences for all the victims of suicide bombing in Istanbul Ataturk Airport. The world is united against terrorism,” added Jokowi.

“Indonesia sends its deepest sympathy to the government and People of Turkey, especially to the bereaved family of the victims’ #prayforturkey,” Indonesia’s foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, tweeted separately.

Jokowi leads a nation with the world’s largest Muslim population that, along with Malaysia, has been grappling in recent years with a threat of radicalized young Muslims traveling through Turkey to join the extremist group Islamic State in neighboring Syria and Iraq.

“Findings by our security forces indicate that this terror attack was carried out by Daesh [Islamic State],” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildrim, told reporters Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The attack came a little more than three months after IS claimed responsibility for a suicide attack at the international airport in Brussels and a metro station in the Belgian capital, which killed 35 people and injured more than 300. However, according to the latest news reports, IS had not yet claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack in Turkey. Earlier reports had put the death toll at 36 people killed.

‘Heinous’

No Indonesians were killed in the attack at the airport, but officials were trying to verify this information with Turkish authorities and the Indonesian expat community, Indonesia’s consulate in Istanbul said in a statement.

Some 728 Indonesian citizens live and work in Turkey, including about 300 who are studying there, the consulate said.

In Malaysia, officials said there were no reports of Malaysian citizens killed or injured in the attack. But the foreign ministry urged citizens traveling to Turkey to watch out for security threats.

“My deepest condolences to the people of Turkey, especially to the families and victims of this senseless attack on innocent lives. Malaysia condemns this heinous act in the strongest terms,” Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a Facebook posting. He called on Muslim nations to unite and cooperate in combatting acts of terrorism conducted in the name of Islam.

Abdul Hadi Awang, the president of Malaysia’s faith-based Pan-Islamic Party (PAS), also condemned the attack in conveying his party’s condolences to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish people.

“Such heinous acts are against the teachings of Islam, which prohibits any cruel actions involving innocent civilians,” the PAS leader said in a statement.

In neighboring Singapore, officials expressed shock as they deplored Tuesday’s suicide attack in Istanbul.

“Singapore strongly condemns this act of terror against innocent civilians and stands united with Turkey in its fight against terrorism,” President Tony Tan Keng Yam said in a letter to his Turkish counterpart.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama called Erdogan to offer American support in investigating the attack and strengthening security in its aftermath, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday, the morning after the U.S. government condemned the airport attack.

In South Asia, Indian and Bangladeshi officials sent similar messages.

“Attack in Istanbul is inhuman & horrific. I condemn it strongly. My thoughts are with bereaved families. May the injured recover quickly,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said via Twitter.

“Terrible news from Istanbul. Our thoughts and prayers are for the victims and their families,” Bangladeshi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam said on Facebook.

Alam, who returned on Wednesday from an overseas tour, noted that he had traveled through Istanbul Ataturk Airport three days ago and had the option to pass through the Turkish hub on Tuesday.

‘Blow back’

Tuesday’s attack was the sixth carried out this year alone in Turkey by suspected IS militants or Kurdish rebels.

Since 2013, the country at the crossroads of Europe and Asia has been rocked on multiple fronts by deadly terrorist attacks, according to news reports. On Oct. 10, 2015, 103 people were killed and more than 500 were wounded in the worst-ever terrorist attack, when twin suicide bombings targeted a pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara, Agence France-Presse reported.

The airport attack was an act of blowback against Turkey for originally backing groups such as IS against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, according to Ajai Sahni, a counter-terrorism expert who founded the New Delhi-based think tank Institute for Conflict Management.

“For a long time, Turkey was supporting terror or radical groups like the IS. [Turkey] was the principal route for Islamic radicals. It had even set up medical facilities for terror groups,” Sahni told BenarNews.

“Basically, every country that has sought to exploit terrorism as an instrument of state policy has eventually suffered a blowback, and Turkey cannot be an exception. It has been a political asylum for terrorists who came from other countries, and now it is finding it difficult to contain radicals spreading violence,” he said.

Tia Asmara in Jakarta, Razlan Rashid in Kuala Lumpur, Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka, and Amin Masoodi in Srinagar, India, contributed to this report.

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