Assailant ‘shot’ outside Israeli embassy in Turkey, say officials – 45 students jailed over 2012 anti-Erdogan protest

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ANKARA/JERUSALEM, Sept 21, (Agencies): A suspected assailant was shot and wounded near the Israeli embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara on Wednesday, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman and Turkish police said.

“The staff is safe. The attacker was wounded before he reached the embassy,” the spokesman said in a text message. “The assailant was shot and wounded by a local security man.” Broadcaster CNN Turk said the suspect, whom it described as mentally unstable, had attempted a knife attack. Turkish police told Reuters the assailant shouted “Allahu akbar”, or “God is Greatest”, outside the embassy before he was shot in the leg. Police were examining his bag but had so far not attempted to detonate it, a Reuters cameraman at the scene said. The area outside the embassy had been cordoned off.

The assailant was apprehended at the outer perimeter of the secured zone around the embassy, the Israeli spokesman said. Private broadcaster NTV identified the suspect as a man from the central city of Konya. It was not immediately clear if there was a second would-be assailant, but Turkish media reports had initially suggested that there had been two attackers.

Turkey faces multiple security threats, including Islamic State militants, who have been blamed for bombings in Istanbul and elsewhere, and Kurdish militants, following the resumption of a three-decade insurgency in the mainly Kurdish southeast last year.

Meanwhile, a Turkish court jailed 45 students Tuesday over a 2012 protest against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at an Ankara university when he visited to celebrate a satellite launch, state media reported. The students were convicted of violating laws on meetings and impeding public officials in their work after they demonstrated against Erdogan’s visit to Middle East Technical University (METU).

The court in the capital Ankara sentenced each of the students to 10 months imprisonment, staterun news agency Anadolu said. Police used tear gas and water cannon during the clashes with protesters in December 2012 when Erdogan visited the campus to watch the launch of a Turkish earth observation satellite into orbit aboard a Chinese rocket via a video link. The clashes caused huge controversy, with the opposition accusing the authorities of using heavy-handed tactics against a relatively minor demonstration.

Aykan Erdemir, a former lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), who criticised the government at the time, attacked the decision to jail the students. “It is sad to see that prison sentences continue to be the main response of the Turkish government to student criticism and protests,” Erdemir told AFP, noting that the government had recently released 38,000 convicts to relieve pressure on Turkey’s overcrowded prisons.

Erdogan was prime minister at the time of the protest and became president in August 2014, extending his domination of the country. In June 2013, he survived one of the biggest challenges to his rule when opponents, many of them students, took to the streets nationwide during weeks of protests against the Turkish strongman. During the hearing, lawyers for the defendants insisted that the students had not committed any crimes and called for their acquittal, Anadolu reported.

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