Turkey sends air ambulances to Turkoman town
After the carnage in Iraq's Armili, Turkey swiftly sent two military air ambulances to Iraq in order to transfer the badly injured to Ankara
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Turkey yesterday sent two military air ambulances to northern Iraq to transfer to Ankara Turkomans who were seriously wounded during a suicide bombing which killed nearly 150 people in Tuz Khormato on Saturday.
“The military planes will land at a military airstrip in Kirkuk if sandstorms do not hamper them and will transfer about 25 injured to Turkey,” a Turkish diplomat, in charge of coordination said to the Turkish Daily News yesterday, before the planes took off.
According to Turkish diplomats in Iraq, Iraqi and United States officials did not oppose Turkey's proposal and accepted humanitarian aid by facilitating the procedures. The TDN learned that the planes took of from Etimesgut military airport in Ankara, and the injured will be treated in various hospitals in the capital. "The ones who cannot be treated in Iraq will be transferred here", noted the diplomat.
The worst carnage occurred in Armili, a Shiite Turkmen village, 75 kilometers south of Kirkuk, when a suicide bomber detonated a food truck laden with explosives in the central market on Saturday morning. The explosion, which was among the deadliest since the start of the war in 2003 occurred as families had gathered for morning shopping. Nearly 150 were killed, among them 25 children and 40 women. About 250 were wounded.
Ankara, known to be sensitive toward Turkmens, called on Iraqi and U.S. officials to provide swift help over the weekend. The foreign ministry strongly condemned the suicide attack, in a statement issued Saturday. In the statement, Ankara called for the establishment of national cohesion and peace in Iraq without any discrimination of religions, religious sects or ethnic identities.
“For us, the peace of mind of all our brothers in Iraq is the priority and Turkey will make all efforts as part of its responsibility to sustain this," said Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül on Saturday.
Gül said that the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad and the Consulate in Mosul quickly got in touch with officials and met with Shiite Turkmen deputy, Abbas Bayati, and also with a member of the Turkmen Fidelity Movement Seryab Tuzlu.
Armili is a town of 26,000 people, mostly composed of Shiites from Iraq's Turkmen ethnic minority. Tensions are constantly high with Sunni Arabs who dominate the surrounding villages, said Turkish diplomats in Iraq.
In recent months, insurgents linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni Arab extremist groups have targeted Shiite areas across Iraq with suicide bombings
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Turkey yesterday sent two military air ambulances to northern Iraq to transfer to Ankara Turkomans who were seriously wounded during a suicide bombing which killed nearly 150 people in Tuz Khormato on Saturday.
“The military planes will land at a military airstrip in Kirkuk if sandstorms do not hamper them and will transfer about 25 injured to Turkey,” a Turkish diplomat, in charge of coordination said to the Turkish Daily News yesterday, before the planes took off.
According to Turkish diplomats in Iraq, Iraqi and United States officials did not oppose Turkey's proposal and accepted humanitarian aid by facilitating the procedures. The TDN learned that the planes took of from Etimesgut military airport in Ankara, and the injured will be treated in various hospitals in the capital. "The ones who cannot be treated in Iraq will be transferred here", noted the diplomat.
The worst carnage occurred in Armili, a Shiite Turkmen village, 75 kilometers south of Kirkuk, when a suicide bomber detonated a food truck laden with explosives in the central market on Saturday morning. The explosion, which was among the deadliest since the start of the war in 2003 occurred as families had gathered for morning shopping. Nearly 150 were killed, among them 25 children and 40 women. About 250 were wounded.
Ankara, known to be sensitive toward Turkmens, called on Iraqi and U.S. officials to provide swift help over the weekend. The foreign ministry strongly condemned the suicide attack, in a statement issued Saturday. In the statement, Ankara called for the establishment of national cohesion and peace in Iraq without any discrimination of religions, religious sects or ethnic identities.
“For us, the peace of mind of all our brothers in Iraq is the priority and Turkey will make all efforts as part of its responsibility to sustain this," said Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül on Saturday.
Gül said that the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad and the Consulate in Mosul quickly got in touch with officials and met with Shiite Turkmen deputy, Abbas Bayati, and also with a member of the Turkmen Fidelity Movement Seryab Tuzlu.
Armili is a town of 26,000 people, mostly composed of Shiites from Iraq's Turkmen ethnic minority. Tensions are constantly high with Sunni Arabs who dominate the surrounding villages, said Turkish diplomats in Iraq.
In recent months, insurgents linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni Arab extremist groups have targeted Shiite areas across Iraq with suicide bombings
posted by Aydın UZUNBOY at
3:46 PM
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