Turkey nightclub shooting: Istanbul mourns victims as search continues
NB: In my opinion, the
most significant passages in this article are these: Conservative clerics
and media outlets have railed against the sinfulness of new year’s celebrations
in recent days. Tabloid newspapers with deeply religious audiences ran
headlines such as: “This is a last warning: do not celebrate” and: “Down with
your civilisation” with images of party-goers next to images of deprivation in
Syria, where nearly half a million people have been killed".. These lines point to the murderous attitudes of a section of civil society, supported by opportunists in state power. The
fanatics are at war with ordinary life. Let it be noted, they have the support of elements in authority - DS
Istanbul is on high
alert as the hunt for a gunman, who fled after killing
39 people at a nightclub on New Year’s Eve, continues. President Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan vowed in a statement that Turkey would fight terrorism “till the end”
following the attack at Reina
in Istanbul’s upscale Ortakoy neighbourhood. “Turkey will stand
together and not give passage to dirty games of terrorists,” he said. Mehmet Görmez,
Turkey’s most senior Muslim cleric, condemned the attack as “savagery” and a
“massacre that no Muslim conscience can accept”. There was condemnation
from around the world as well as inside Turkey. The US State
Department described the attack as “heinous” and the Russian president,
Vladimir Putin, said it was “hard to imagine a more cynical crime”.
The attack came at the
end of a year of terrorist incidents across Europe, including the driving
of a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin earlier in December. The
German chancellor, Angela Merkel, sent her condolences to the
victims of the Istanbul attack, saying “terrorists ... have carried out an
inhumane and devious attack on people who wanted to celebrate the new year
together”… read more
