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 The father of three men wounded in the blasts told Reuters one of
his sons had described seeing one of the bombers carrying a bag on
his back and one in his hand, and called out "stop" before the bomb
detonated.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday's attack, the worst of
its kind on Turkish soil, was intended to influence the outcome of
November polls Erdogan hopes will restore a majority the ruling AK
party lost in June. Officials say there is no question of postponing
the vote.
Two bombs struck seconds apart, targeting a rally of pro-Kurdish
activists and civic groups near Ankara's main train station.
"If you consider the way the attack happened and the general trend
of it, we have identified Islamic State as the primary focus,"
Davutoglu told Turkey's NTV television. "It was definitely a suicide
bombing...DNA tests are being conducted. It was determined how the
suicide bombers got there. We're close to a name, which points to
one group."
The Haberturk newspaper has cited police sources as saying the type
of explosive and the choice of target pointed to a group within
Islamic State known as the 'Adiyaman ones', a reverence to Adiyaman
province in southeastern Turkey.
Turkey is vulnerable to infiltration by Islamic State, which holds
swathes of Syrian land abutting Turkey where some two million
refugees live. But there has been no word from the group - usually
swift to publicly claim responsibility for any attack it conducts -
over the Ankara bombing or two very similar incidents earlier this
year.
Opponents of Erdogan, who has led the country over 13 years, blame
him for the attack, accusing the state at best of intelligence
failings and at worst of complicity by stirring up nationalist,
anti-Kurdish sentiment.
The government, facing a growing Kurdish conflict at home and the
spillover of war in Syria, vehemently denies such accusations.
But the sheer range of possible perpetrators - from Islamic State
and Marxist radicals to militant nationalists and Kurdish armed
factions - highlights deep fissures running through Turkish society.
At stake is the stability of a NATO country seen by the West as a
bulwark against Middle Eastern turmoil.
PROTESTS
Hundreds chanting anti-government slogans marched on a mosque in an
Istanbul suburb for the funeral of several of the victims, attended
by Selahattin Demirtas, leader of the pro-Kurdish parliamentary
opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which says it was the
target of the bombings.
 Riot police with water cannon and armored vehicles stood by as the
crowd, some chanting "Thief, Murderer Erdogan" and waving HDP flags,
moved towards the mosque in the working class Umraniye neighborhood
of Istanbul.
Several labor unions also called protests. Hundreds of people, many
wearing doctors' uniforms and carrying Turkish Medical Association
banners, gathered by the main train station in Ankara where the
explosions happened to lay red carnations but were blocked by riot
police, a Reuters witness said.
Lawyers at an Istanbul courthouse chanted "Murderer Erdogan will
give account" as colleagues applauded, footage circulated on social
media showed.
Erdogan, accused by opponents of an increasingly authoritarian and
divisive style, has overseen a purge in the judiciary of elements he
believes to have been colluding with a U.S. based cleric-rival
planning a coup against him.
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SYRIA SPILLOVER
The HDP has put the death toll from the bombings at 128 and said it
had identified all but eight of the bodies. Davutoglu's office has
said 97 were killed.
The bombs struck as hundreds gathered for a march organized by
pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups to protest over a growing
conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK) militants in the southeast.
The PKK is deemed a terrorist group by the United States and the EU
as well as Turkey. Some 40,000 have been killed in the predominantly
Kurdish southeast since the insurgency began in 1984.
The father of three men wounded in the blasts said one of his sons,
Abdulselam, described seeing one of the bombers carrying a bag on
his back and one in his hand. He called out "stop" suspecting an
attacker.
"The bomber panicked. Selam got nervous and acted without thinking.
Maybe he could have had the chance to get him arrested, but he
shouted to the bomber," the father, Mehmet Ali Altun, told Reuters
outside the hospital where his sons were being treated. The son, who
had been questioned by police, declined to speak to media.
The HDP accused Ankara of escalating violence to try to reduce its
vote at Nov. 1 polls, restore an AK majority and pave the way for
the more powerful presidential system Erdogan seeks.
The Ankara attack revived memories of a similar bombing of a
pro-Kurdish rally in the southeastern town of Diyarbakir and another
in Suruc in July that killed at least 30 and was also attributed to
Islamic State. There was no claim of responsibility and HDP says
there was no proper investigation.
"Our electorates feel under constant threat in every social space
and political activity they attend," it said.
In comments reflecting the murky entanglements that exist in Turkish
political thinking, the HDP also accused the AKP of relying on
radical groups including Islamic State as proxies to fight Kurds in
northern Syria. The government strongly denies such suggestions.
Tensions have further unnerved investors, many of whom have reduced
their Turkey exposure in recent months because of the election
uncertainty. The lira weakened to 2.95 to the dollar <TRYTOM=D3>
early on Monday, making it the worst performing currency among major
emerging markets.
AK Party spokesman Omer Celik told reporters the party was
suspending its rallies until Friday. Demirtas said he no longer
thought large rallies were possible amid the security fears but that
it would be up to the HDP to decide.
(Additional reporting by Gulsen Solaker, Orhan Coskun, Ece Toksabay
and Ercan Gurses in Ankara; Writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by
Ralph Boulton)
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