ISTANBUL, NOVEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS: Two blasts rocked Istanbul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and devastating both the HSBC Bank headquarters and British consulate in an apparent suicide attack, foreign news agencies reported.
Turkish television, quoting city health officials, said that besides the 15 killed, 320 people were injured. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was quoted by Reuters as saying that the strikes bore “all the hallmarks of the international terrorism operations practiced by al Qaeda and associated organizations.”
The blasts were the second such strike in Turkey in five days. According to Turkey’s interior minister, there is a connection with weekend attacks on two Istanbul synagogues that killed 25.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, visiting Sweden, said Turkey would not bow to terror. “Everyone must know that we will not give up to terror,” he said in Stockholm.
The attacks could deal a tremendous blow to a Turkish economy only now struggling from recession and facing still huge debt repayments over the next year. A tenuous return of foreign investment could be put at risk by any continued atmosphere of danger.
The blasts have also heavily damaged several Armenian organizations and Armenian-owned companies in Istanbul- an Armenian church, located in the central part of Istanbul, known as Pera, editorial offices of Armenian-language newspapers Zhamanak and Marmara. Ara Gochunian, the chief editor of Zhamanak told Armenpress by the phone that no Armenians were identified among the victims of the blasts. The Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul is said to be in constant contacts with law-enforcement bodies to collect information about the community members and their property.
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