Foreign envoys visit blast site in Istanbul

By Fikriye Susam Uyar and Ercan Dogan

ISTANBUL (AA) – Consuls general from across the world gathered in Istanbul on Monday at the site of Saturday’s deadly terrorist bomb attacks.

Representatives from over a dozen countries -- including the U.S., Germany, France, the U.K. and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus -- joined local civic leaders and religious figures.

In a commemoration ceremony at Dolmabahce Clock Tower in the Besiktas district -- scene of the twin blasts which claimed 44 lives -- the foreign diplomats, along with local mayor Murat Hazinedar and religious leaders, left wreaths and offered condolences to the victims’ families.

Consuls general from the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Azerbaijan, Israel, Belgium, Brazil, South Korea and Austria were also among those represented.

The group marched from the clock tower to Belestepe (now renamed Martyrs’ Hill) -- the exact site where the attack happened -- to show solidarity with the Turkish nation.

Besiktas mayor Hazinedar told Anadolu Agency the bombs did not just attack Turkey’s values but the values of humanity.

Recalling world leaders’ solidarity march in Paris after the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack, Hazinedar called for a similar display in Istanbul from national leaders.

Saturday’s twin terror attacks -- one by a bomb-laden car and the other a suicide bomb -- against riot police near Besiktas’s Vodafone Arena after a Turkish football league match killed 44 people and left 155 more wounded.

President of Besiktas football club, Fikret Orman and some of the club’s executive members also visited the site and left wreaths on Monday.