Outside a hospital in Ankara, after the bomb attacks of 10 October, a worried crowd waited for news of missing family members and friends. No one was allowed inside. The crowd huddled in the rain by A&E, commiserating with strangers. It was a scene in sharp contrast to the rancour and backbiting of politicians in the Turkish media, quick to speculate who the culprits were and where to lay the blame.
The breach between ordinary Turks and their government has widened in the lead-up to snap elections on 1 November. Whatever the allegiances of the two suicide bombers, many Turks place responsibility for the attack – which official figures claim killed at least 97 and critically injured many more – at the feet of an interim government dominated by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), along with its former leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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