Family members (click here) of victims cry outside the Forensic Medical Center in Istanbul, Wednesday, June 29, 2016. Suicide attackers killed dozens and wounded more than 140 at Istanbul's busy Ataturk Airport late Tuesday, the latest in a series of bombings to strike Turkey in recent months. Turkish officials said the massacre was most likely the work of the Islamic State group. Turkish authorities have banned distribution of images relating to the Ataturk airport attack within Turkey.
Turkey has a problem with domestic terrorists. Perhaps there is a reason. It has been a puzzle as to why Turkey never bothered to secure it's border with Syria. Did the government want their own citizens to leave?
Rural poverty (click here) has declined in the Republic of Turkey over the past ten years, but extreme disparities of income and poverty levels persist across the country. In poor rural areas, family size is nearly twice the national average, adult literacy rates are far lower than the national average, there are fewer doctors, agricultural production per capita is lower, and fewer women are among the employed.
I thank the Associated Press for the photos. They are enlightening as well as beautifully emotional.
Ahead of the UN Human Rights Council May 2010 (click here) Universal Periodic Review of Turkey, Forum 18 News Service has found that the country continues to see serious violations of international human rights standards on freedom of religion or belief. A long-standing crucially important issue, with many implications, is that Turkey has not legally recognized religious communities in their own right as independent communities with full legal status - such as the right to own places of worship and the legal protection religious communities normally have in states under the rule of law. Additionally, the most dangerous threat to individuals exercising freedom of religion or belief has been a series of violent attacks and murders on those perceived as threats; in recent years the victims have been Christians. Turkish citizens have argued to Forum 18 that the protection of the right of all to freedom of religion or belief, as laid down in the international human rights standards which Turkey is party to, should be the standard used by the authorities in all affected fields. They also argue that the authorities [must] act against the intolerance fuelling violent attacks and murders....
How did Daesh know there were no arrivals to their regime? Or did they know and not care? Suicide bombers are suicide bombers even when a victim.
Turkey has been a member of NATO for a very long time. The USA has valued them as a strategic partner as well. The animosity between Asia and the USA has to end. Tensions in the Pacific is insane. Those tensions can be a catalyst to the domestic terrorists. The relationships between major powers has to be friendly and willing to stand together against violence. They should summit and end the tensions by signing a joint statement. The five nuclear powers need to begin pressure to end nuclear proliferation and that is one place they can agree and sign a joint statement.
Turkey has to celebrate it's citizens and end any religious bigotry in the country. I can't believe such hatred is allowed by NATO countries.
The physical status of the Turkish people is alarming. They need relief and that should start with food and medical needs, including pediatricians.
Turkey needs to strengthen it's economic ties with Russia. They need each other.
