Access to Twitter restored in Turkey
Turkish government removed the ban imposed on accessing Twitter to inhibit the broadcast of images related to the suicide bombing in Suruc. The access was restored soon after Twitter had removed all the 107 problematic URLs. According to Anadolu Agency, the ban was also imposed to prohibit Twitter users from waging a protest against the government for not doing enough to prevent the bombing.
ISIS had invaded Kobane (Turkey), a neighbouring town of Suruc in September 2014 but Kurdish forces regained it in January 2015. In June 2015, Kobane was again ravaged by ISIS forces leaving 100 dead. The militants were however, driven out by the Kurdish forces. Ever since the attack on Diyarbakir on 5 June, Suruc sublimely feared that it could be ISIS' next target.
Two explosions caused by homemade bombs had hit the pro-Kurdish HDP party's final election rally in the town of Diyarbakir in Turkey on 5 June 2015. There were 4 reported deaths and 400 people were injured in the blast.
A suicide bomb attack took place at the Amara Culture Centre in the Turkish town of Suruc while young activists were holding a meeting regarding the reconstruction of the neighbouring town of Kobane. The young activists who were chanting slogans and waving flags were planning to travel to Kobane for reconstruction work. Atleast 32 were killed, while 100 were brutally injured.
Turkey Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu disclosed that a suspect behind the Suruc bombing had been identified. He also stated that the suspect is highly probable to have links to the ISIS. However, he did not confirm the claim of the eyewitnesses that the bomber was a female who survived the attack He rejected claims that the government was incapable of warding off terror attacks.
"What's necessary will be done against whomever is responsible. This is an attack that targeted Turkey", stated Mr. Davutoglu, the Prime Minister of Turkey.
A mass funeral was arranged at a mosque in Suruc for all the 32 young activists who were killed in the suicide bombing. The mourners shouted slogans and grieved the death of the victims in the courtyard of the mosque, after which they were taken to their home towns for burial. The activists were mainly university students belonging to Federation of Socialist Youth Associations.
A court in Suruc issued a ban on the broadcasting of images related to the Suruc suicide bombing on any platform of media. It said that access will be barred to internet sites that do not comply with the ban. The Turkish government had asked Twitter to remove 107 URLs of which Twitter removed 50 URLs before the government blocked the site.
Previously in April 2015, the government enforced a temporary ban on Twitter and YouTube due to a hostage crisis in a court of Istanbul. Later, the highest court in Turkey deemed the ban unconstitutional.
