Tonight, the building of the Ankara mayor's office was attacked by unknown assailants. According to preliminary information, bullets hit the windows of the 7th, 11th and 13th floors.
The Yeni Akit newspaper published the photos taken inside the city hall. Currently, the police are trying to establish the identity of the attackers. No casualties were reported.
Earlier, an armed attack was staged on the dissident journalist Irfan Degirmenci’s house in Istanbul.
"My house was shot with bullets towards this morning. Thanks police for their examination. They wrote down a report. They consider the possibility of ‘a stray bullet.’ I am fine. Please do not panic,” he wrote on his Twitter page.
Degirmenci was fired as a popular TV presenter at Kanal D TV station after he declared on social media that he would vote “no” in a referendum on constitutional amendments, Turkey Purge reported.
The orientalist Vyacheslav Matuzov, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that most likely these incidents are not linked to the results of the recent referendum to amend the Turkish Constitution. "I do not think that after the referendum we should expect some serious conflicts in Turkey, because the concentration of power in the president's hands is a positive factor. Another one would be destructive: the extrusion of terrorist groups from Syria and Iraq into Turkey's territories," he stressed.
It's more likely that the shelling of Ankara's mayor's office is one of those incidents that regularly occur in Turkey recently. "Turkey has been at the crossroads of many terrorist groups going through it to Syria and Iraq. Today, the Turkish leadership has to pay a similar price for its former positions. At least now Turkey has a more robust view of what is happening and, above all, on the development of relations with Russia. It will be the key to stability inside Turkey and the Middle East in general," Vyacheslav Matuzov noted.
He also expressed confidence that the decision to extend the state of emergency in Turkey after the referendum was fully justified. "The country faces a really serious internal political crisis, entering the period of struggle against terrorist structures. I would not condemn or support the Turkish government's steps regarding the introduction of the state of emergency, but it seems to me that it understands how to act to prevent destabilization of the situation," the Orientalist concluded.
An associate professor of the Faculty of International Relations of the TOBB University of Economics and Technology (Ankara), Togrul Ismail, in turn, noted that the shelling the mayor's office in Ankara is most likely a provocation. "At the moment, some factions want to split the society, but I do not think that they will succeed, because Turkey has the experience of democratic elections. There were tensions before, but now due to the fact that the difference between 'yes' and 'no' in the referendum was not very big, there are serious political disputes," he stressed.
"I honestly think that this is an isolated case, which could happen in normal times. Of course, this is a provocation in order to aggravate the situation. I will draw your attention to the fact that the opposition continues its political struggle within the framework of legality. We hold mass demonstrations and other democratic processes, but it is a common thing for any civil society, because people do not have to be happy with everything. But in general, the situation is calm," Togrul Ismail said.
