The Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) strongly condemns terror attack which killed 32 young men and women and injured 100 more during a meeting at a cultural center in the southeast Turkey near the Syrian border on July 20th.
NATO ally Turkey has suffered from international terrorism, namely by Armenian groups, ASALA and JCAG/ARF, and Kurdish group, PKK, since the 1960s, as well as by Al-Qaeda.
Since 1973, Armenian terrorists groups, particularly the left-wing ASALA and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s militant wing JCAG, committed 239 attacks, killing at least 70, including 42 foreign service officers, wounding over 700 innocent people, and causing billions of dollars in property damage worldwide. These groups took 105 hostages, executing 12, one of whom was an American.
Since 1984, the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) has caused the deaths of over 35,000 people, including Americans. The PKK has caused billions of dollars of property damage worldwide. The PKK claims to represent Kurds, but includes a sliver of roughly 5000 radicals and militants who obtain revenue by narcotics and cigarette smuggling in the EU.
Turkey is the world’s largest refugee-hosting nation, including more than 1.7 million Syrian and 200,000 Iraqi Kurdish refugees, as well as 200,000 Azeris from Armenian-occupied western Azerbaijan, 100,000 Armenians from Armenia looking for better life in Turkey, 75,000 Bosnians, 50,000 Bulgarians, 20,000 Albanians and Kosovars, and thousands of others.
As the preeminent organization representing the Turkish American community, we mourn the loss of our people, who have perished as a result of this heinous act of terror, and offer our heartfelt condolences to their families and wish a speedy recovery to those who were injured.
