Turkey Denies Supporting ISIS After Suicide Bombing

The government of Turkey has denied supporting radical Islamist groups in Syria after a suicide bombing in a border town killed 32, despite the fact that the government is prosecuting police officers who tried to stop weapons shipments from Turkey reaching Syria.

Reuters reports that Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the Turkish government has never supported terrorist groups, whether directly or indirectly. Countries in the West such as the United States have long urged Turkey to take a serious approach to fighters transiting its borders to fight in Syria for groups like the Islamic State.

Additionally, member of the opposition of the Turkish parliament have also accused the government of supporting ISIS. He was most likely referring to several incidents in 2013 and 2014 when police stopped trucks carrying ammunition and supplies into Syria and it turned out that the trucks were being sent to ISIS controlled territory by members of the Turkish CIA, which is known as the MiT.

The Turkish government has since arrested the prosecutor who ordered the trucks be stopped and the officers who made the stop and is in the process of prosecuting them.

The Turkish public is losing patience with the governing AKP party, which recently lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in more than a decade. A governing coalition has yet to be forged and it is possible that new elections will be called.

The AKP's prospects are surely worse after the suicide bombing in the border of Suruc that targeted Kurdish students who were demonstrating on behalf of their ethnic kin in Syria.

While just last week the Turkish government arrested more than 20 recruiters and members of ISIS, many have complained that it is too little too late, particularly in the wake of this bombing.