Turkey Fires Security Officials After Ankara Bombing

The Turkish government has fired a number of high-ranking security officials as public anger at a recent bombing in the capital of Ankara that killed 97 people and left hundreds more injured continues to grow.

Among those fired were the head of the Ankara police, and the intelligence chiefs of the intelligence and public security of the interior ministry, according to AFP. The Minister of the Interior is still in his position despite being in charge of two the people fired for their failure to stop the devastating blasts that targeted a peace rally seeking an end to violence between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

The rally was attended primarily by Kurds and leftists, and the government has been blaming the Islamic State, but many in Turkey have turned their anger towards the Turkish government itself. For example, after a similar bombing over the summer, the PKK renewed its military campaign against the Turkish state, targeting police officers and soldiers.

The PKK is of the opinion that because Turkey lets ISIS fighters receive medical treatment in its hospitals and foreign fighters move freely through its borders, that Turkey bears some responsibility for the attack that took place over the summer.

Both sides had been in the midst of peace talks and a ceasefire before the summer, but violence escalated after the governing AKP lost its absolute majority in parliamentary elections.

After the bombing, the PKK followed through with its previously announced plans to have a unilateral ceasefire to try and defuse the tensions coursing through the country of 80 million.