AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Public Statement

AI Index: EUR 44/016/2007 (Public)

News Service No: 189

2 October 2007

Turkey: Attacks on civilians must stop

Amnesty International strongly condemns two separate bomb attacks in the western city of Izmir. According to accounts, one person was killed when a bomb exploded on a motorcycle outside a carpet shop. In an earlier explosion one person was severely wounded when a device exploded outside a shopping centre. According to press reports, a number of others were injured as a result of the two explosions.

The explosions come three days after an attack on a minibus in the Sirnakprovince of eastern Turkey that led to the deaths of multiple civilians. In May a bomb in the Ulus district of Ankara killed nine and injured more than one hundred people.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The Turkish authorities have accused the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) of carrying out the previous attacks but the group rejected these claims.

Amnesty International calls for an immediate end to attacks on civilians.