Suicide Bomb Attack on US Embassy in Turkey

Two people were killed in a suicide bomb attack outside the American embassy in Turkey’s capital, Ankara Friday.

It was reported that a security guard and the suspected attacker both died in the blast.

One Turkish woman was seriously wounded.

Turkey’s Interior Minister, Muammer Guler, claims the attacker was from a domestic left-wing militant group.

Marco Werman speaks with Howard Eissenstat, assistant professor of history at St. Lawrence University about the attack.

Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Marco Werman: Another attack on a Western target today, this one in Turkey. I’m speaking of a suicide bomber who blew himself up on the US embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Here’s what one Turkish journalist told the BBC about what he saw.

Turkish Journalist: I was driving towards the embassy when there was this huge explosion and I saw ambulances racing towards the embassy only about five minutes after the blast, so there was a very quick response.

Werman: Along with the bomber, a security guard was also killed in the blast. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Turkey’s prime minister is blaming an outlaw Turkish Marxist group. Howard Eissenstat is a St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY, who has studied Turkey for the last 20 years. So what can you tell us about this Turkish Marxist group? It sounds very 1970s.

Howard Eissenstat: Indeed it is. Its roots go back to 1978 and they’ve been active on and off along with a fair amount of factional fighting since then. They’re much in the tradition of the Red Army faction from the ’70s and see themselves as sort of a heroic revolutionary front that’s going to fight imperialism and radicalize the country in doing so. They don’t have significant public support, but they do have the capacity to maintain fervent loyalty among a handful of followers, and have carried out a number of spectacular attacks over the years, including a large number against American interests.

Werman: The interior minister in Turkey didn’t say why the government believes it to be this particular domestic group behind the bombing, but if you had to fill in the blanks for us, why do you think they’re getting the blame?

Eissenstat: Well, I don’t think that the Turkish authorities are saying something that they don’t have good evidence for. And the news reports that I’ve seen indicate that they found the body, that they’ve identified the body as someone who’s been affiliated with them for a large number of years, who’s been in prison for previous activities. So I suspect that is the case. This is a group for whom, you know, 1978 has stood still. They haven’t undergone tremendous ideological changes. They’ve certainly had factional fighting, but that’s largely inside baseball. They see the United States as an imperial power. They see Turkey as a colonial power that must engage in heroic national struggle against them. And they view the Turkish government as mere proxy for US interests.

Werman: How relevant are they to any Turks and their political beliefs?

Eissenstat: Really not at all. You will see some graffiti in Turkish European neighborhoods, but I think if we were talking about percentages, the Turkish public that have sympathy for them, we’re talking about less than a percent.

Werman: Hm, I gotta say, there’s several countries in Turkey’s neighborhood where tension and pressure could possibly affect things in Ankara. I’m thinking of Syria specifically. Do you believe you can exclude those connections to this bombing?

Eissenstat: I’m not an intelligence officer, so I don’t have direct knowledge. I would be shocked if either Syria or Iran was directly involved, or Hezbollah or directly involved in an attack in Turkey. When I was sort of making my own short list of possibilities in my mind this morning, they were all domestic.

Werman: Howard Eissenstate, a history prof at St. Lawrence University, thank you indeed.

Eissenstat: Thank you.

Copyright ©2012 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.