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The 1999 Istanbul bombings were a pair of bombings that took place in
Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
,
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
on March 13, killing 13, and March 14, 1999, injuring two. A third bomb was found in a
Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based restaurant c ...
outlet but successfully defused. A Turkish court sentenced
Cevat Soysal Cevat is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Cevat Rıfat Atilhan (1892–1967), Turkish career officer, antisemitic writer, initiator of the 1934 Thrace pogroms *Cevat Çobanlı (1870–1938), military commander of the Ottoman A ...
to 18 years and nine months in prison on June 25, 2002, for allegedly having ordered the attack.


The attacks

* Blue Market massacre: The March 13, attack involved three terrorists ran inside and placed the first bomb in a shopping center, then they forced people up the stairs and on the top floor. The flame and fumes went upwards roaring higher and higher. The flames engulfed the five story building shattering windows of the shopping mall. People were hiding in the attic but there was no ventilation, the fumes of the fire eventually killed them due to suffocation. The terrorists fled the scene with Police trailing them. Crowds knew what was happening and they started chanting "DEATH TO THE PKK." * On March 14, 1999, the second bombing, was when a terrorist quickly dropped a bomb under a car and ran. When it blew up it injured a police officer and, supposedly the terrorist did not run fast enough and was caught in the blast and was injured as well. The third bomb was captured and swiftly defused in a fast food restaurant and there were no casualties.


Aftermath

These three events caused widespread fear and anger among the people of Turkey and brought more attention to the Kurdish PKK party, who were blamed for the bombings; in the aftermath, one of their leader, Cevat Soysal, was taken to court. The media called the PKK and its leaders "terrorist," "traitors to their country," and "insidious." These events also disrupted financial inflows to Turkey because the bombings were focused on very busy areas, and resulted in tourist warnings being issued. Authorities arrested several people suspected of involvement in the bombings, most notably Cevat Soysa