It looks as if jihadists in Smyrna are trying to convince secularists not to hold their demonstration, although Bornova Mayor Sirri Aydogan denies this and says there’s no problem. From AFP, with thanks to JE:
A bomb ripped through a marketplace in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Saturday, leaving 15 people injured, one of them seriously, officials said.
The bomb, planted in a bag and left on a bicycle at the marketplace, went off a day before thousands were expected to gather in Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, for a demonstration in support of the country’s secular order.
“The incident occurred when explosives put on a bicycle, left there the previous evening, went off,” Izmir Governor Cahit Kirac was quoted as saying at the scene by Anatolia news agency reported….
“It was an attack aimed directly at (killing) people, at a massacre,” Bornova Mayor Sirri Aydogan said.
He said he did not believe the blast was linked to a planned demonstration in Izmir on Sunday, the latest in a series of pro-secular rallies across Turkey amid political turmoil over who the country’s next president should be.
“All measures will be taken for the meeting tomorrow… I do not think that people will be scared off,” Aydogan said.