The bombing of a pro-Kurdish rally in Ankara highlights the 'dangerous cocktail' brewing in Turkey
A twin bombing at a pro-Kurdish peace rally in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Saturday killed at least 86 people and wounded 186 others, Turkey's health minister has confirmed.
The bombing took place outside Ankara's main train station shortly after 10 a.m. as hundreds of people gathered to protest the conflict between Turkish police and Kurdish militants in the southeast.
'A dangerous cocktail'
The attack set off a wave of protests across the country by those condemning the government for not doing more to detain the jihadis living and operating along the southern border.
"The possibility that Turkey's Kurds are preparing for battle certainly bodes poorly for the country's stability," he said."But the real danger here, in my view, is the combination of Kurdish unrest and the ISIS threat."
In November, a former ISIS member told Newsweek that the group was essentially given free rein by Turkey's army.
"ISIS commanders told us to fear nothing at all because there was full cooperation with the Turks," the fighter said. "ISIS saw the Turkish army as its ally especially when it came to attacking the Kurds in Syria."
The consequence is now clear: Turkey allowed the group to establish a major presence within the country - and created a huge problem for itself.
"The longer this has persisted, the more difficult it has become for the Turks to crack down [on ISIS] because there is the risk of a counter strike, of blowback," Jonathan Schanzer, a former counterterrorism analyst for the US Treasury Department, explained to Business Insider last November.
"You have a lot of people now that are invested in the business of extremism in Turkey," Schanzer added. "If you start to challenge that, it raises significant questions of whether" the militants, their benefactors, and other war profiteers would tolerate the crackdown."