Turkish authorities have blamed the U.S. Embassy attack on the
Revolutionary People's Liberation Party. It's a reminder that it's not
just jihadist groups who threaten Western governments and their
interests overseas. FULL STORY
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DEADLY BLAST OUTSIDE U.S. EMBASSY
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PHOTOS
Turkish attack a reminder of Cold War dynamics
February 3, 2013 -- Updated 0627 GMT (1427 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Friday's bombing in Ankara harkens back to Cold War political violence
- Turkish authorities blame the U.S. Embassy attack on DHKP-C
- Marxist-Leninist DHKP-C has been active for more than 30 years
Pockets of the extreme
left and extreme right still consider political violence legitimate --
among them the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party in Turkey.
Turkish authorities have
blamed the U.S. Embassy attack on the group, better known as DHKP-C, and
are in the process of identifying the bomber.
Analysts say it is likely
the attack had two aims -- to embarrass the Turkish government and to
demonstrate the group's hostility to the deployment of Patriot
anti-missile batteries on Turkish soil. Several members of the group are
thought to be close to the Syrian regime.
DHKP-C has a relationship
with the Turkish Kurdish separatist group PKK, which is also close to
the Syrian government. About one-third of the PKK's fighters are said to
be Syrian, according to regional analysts.
DHKP-C is viscerally hostile to the Turkish state, the United States and NATO, and has had links with the far-left in Europe.
In recent days, Turkish
police have arrested several dozen people suspected of links with
DHKP-C, among them a number of lawyers. However, Human Rights Watch
called the arrests an "arbitrary and abusive use of anti-terrorism laws
in Turkey."
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Turkish authorities
believe the suicide bomber Friday was Ecevit Sanli, a longtime member of
the group. DNA tests are being conducted to confirm his identity.
Sanli received
bomb-making training somewhere in Europe in the mid-1990s, according to
Hasa Selim Ozertem, a security expert at the International Strategic
Research Organization in Ankara. Turkish officials say that as a result
of counterterrorism operations on Turkish soil, DHKP-C became
increasingly active among the Turkish diaspora in Europe.
Sanli returned to Turkey
in 1997 and was subsequently involved in attacks on the Istanbul police
headquarters and senior military officials using anti-tank weapons.
After being arrested, Sanli went on a lengthy hunger strike and was
released from jail in 2002 because of a neurological disorder.
DHKP-C has been active
for more than 30 years and espouses a Marxist-Leninist philosophy
reminiscent of the Cold War. It grew out of another far-left group,
Devrimci Sol (Revolutionary Left), formed when Turkey was in political
turmoil, with clashes between militant left- and right-wing groups
undermining a weak political system. Devrimci Sol claimed responsibility
for gun attacks that killed two Americans, including a U.S. military
employee, and an attack that wounded a U.S. military officer in early
1991 in protest of the Gulf War.
Among other attacks
attributed to the DHKP-C was the assassination of a former justice
minister, Mehmet Topac, in 1994, as well as the murders of a number of
senior police and military officials and, 1996, a prominent businessman,
Ozdemir Sabanci.
Among its more recent
operations was an attempt to kill another former justice minister,
Hikmet Sami Turk, in 2009. The female suicide bomber's main explosive
charge did not go off.
Security analysts say
the latest attack is very similar to one launched on an Istanbul police
station last year. Again, a former hunger striker who was critically
sick with cancer arrived at the police station wearing a belt stuffed
with explosives and triggered the bomb just before passing through an
X-ray machine.
Ozertem told CNN he is
unaware of any links between DHKP-C and al Qaeda-type actors, but the
possibility can't be entirely dismissed because al Qaeda sympathizers
have become increasingly active in the region.
The Turkish National
Police assessment of the group says, "American, European and Israeli
companies and enterprises are also among the targets of DHKP-C since
they are considered by the terrorist organization as assets of global
imperialism."
It says the group is also involved in drug trafficking to finance its operations.
Analysts consulted by
CNN do not believe the organization has the capacity to launch a
sustained terrorist campaign, nor penetrate security at well-guarded
installations. Its last known attack aimed at a U.S. target in Turkey
was in 1999, when two men tried to fire a rocket at the U.S. Consulate
General building in Istanbul. Both were killed in a subsequent
firefight. COPY http://edition.cnn.com
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