Ambulances arrive at site after Islamic State suicide bombing targets Kurdish wedding in Gaziantep, August 20, 2016. Photo: AFP
GAZIANTEP,— A Turkish court handed down multiple aggravated life sentences Thursday over a 2016 suicide bombing attack that killed 57 people, mostly Kurds, at an outdoor Kurdish wedding. The Islamic State (IS) was blamed for the attack.
Of 12 people charged over the deadly attack in the southeastern Gaziantep province, 10 were convicted and sentenced by a court in the central province of Kayseri.
Eight got multiple aggravated life sentences for charges including premeditated murder, possession of hazardous materials, and being members of a terrorist group, and two got nine years in prison for terrorist group membership.
Two suspects, including one minor, were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
On August 20, 2016 a suicide bomber attacked a Kurdish wedding party in southeastern Turkey. 57 people were killed, more than half of them children. At least 100 people were injured.
Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence. The Dogan news agency said the bride and groom were from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and themselves been uprooted due to the flare-up in violence with Kurdish militants.
In 2016 the leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) at that time Selahattin Demirtas said in a statement that “all of those killed were Kurds”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed ISIS for the attack and said the suicide bomber was a child aged between 12 and 14.
In July 2015 an Islamic State suicide attack has killed at least 32 Kurdish activists, and wounded nearly 100 others in the Youth cultural centre Kurdish city of Suruc in Turkish Kurdistan near the Syrian border.
Also in October 2015 a twin Islamic State bombs target pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara, kill more than 128 people.
Many Islamic jihadists see Kurds as one of their main enemies, with Kurdish militias playing a significant role in the fight against IS on the ground in Syria.
The Kurds and international observers accuse the Turkish government of collaborating with the IS group, but Ankara denies the charges.
(With files from yenisafak.com | rudaw.net | Reuters | AFP)
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