They Were Seen Off, Under Turkish Flag

They Were Seen Off, Under Turkish Flag
Turkey embraced the 1300 year old Jewish-Muslim bond because six Jewish people killed in the homicide bombings this past weekend, including one Romanian and five Turkish, were buried with tears and were wrapped to Turkish flags, as martyrs of Turkey. At the funeral in the Askenaz Cemetery in Istanbul, Turkey's Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva said, 'may my prayers rise to the skies, for the elevation of friendship between the people, and terror replaced by peace, love and harmony."

Haleva quoted Ataturk's motto "Peace at home, peace in the world" both in Turkish and Hebrew. State Minister Guldal Aksit represented the government in the funeral.

At least one of the two men who carried out the duel bombings, Masoud Shabok and Azzad Akinji, had spent an extended period of time in Iran undergoing bomb training, a Turkish TV report claimed Monday.

Al Jazeera television news reported that Shabok and Akinji were associated with a small, Islamic extremist organization in Turkey called the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front (known by its Turkish acronym IBDA-C).

Earlier, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said DNA tests on the suspected drivers, which could establish identities or at least nationalities, were expected to be ready on Tuesday. Earlier Turkish news reports said police had been questioning a Turk believed to be the brother of one of the drivers. The man questioned was brought to Istanbul from southeastern Turkey for questioning because one of the pickups had been purchased using documentation belonging to him. NTV said DNA testing on the suspected suicide driver's remains and on the brother indicated they were related, helping to identify the driver as a Turk. NTV, without citing sources, said the driver had traveled six times to Iran for bomb training. He was suspected, along with the other suicide driver, of having links with the al-Qaida terrorist network, NTV said.