Burcu Arik
24 February 2016•Update: 24 February 2016
ISTANBUL
Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
Dailies on Wednesday mainly dedicated their front pages to increasing political tension in the Turkish parliament after Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) deputy of Van, Tugba Hezer, attended the funeral of the Ankara suicide bomber, Abdulbaki Somer, who killed 29 people on Feb. 17.
"The murderers cannot represent Kurds," was YENI SAFAK's headline, reporting that the deputy’s attendance had alarmed Ankara.
All chairmen of Justice and Development (AK) Party, Republican People's Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) harshly criticized Hezer, according to daily.
"They make fun of people's mourning. They provoke. Turkey will pay them back in accordance with the law," Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in his address on Tuesday, the paper reported.
Turkish officials had initially named Syrian national Salih Necar as the one who detonated an explosives-laden car. Necar was said be linked to the Syrian PYD, which is affiliated with the PKK. Both are considered terrorist organizations by Turkey.
However, a DNA test on Tuesday revealed the identity of the bomber was in fact Abdulbaki Somer, whose father, who lives in the eastern province of Van, had informed the police about his potential involvement.
The DNA samples provided by Somer's father matched the assailant's.
Somer, born in 1989, reportedly joined the terrorist PKK organization at the age of 16 in 2005 and was based in the Qandil mountains -- the PKK base in northern Iraq -- until 2014, according to prosecution sources.
MILLIYET ran the headline "11 detentions at the funeral". According to daily, police took 11 people into custody, including Somer's father, his brother and an imam, for spreading PKK propaganda.
Apart from the funeral detentions, 14 people suspected to be connected to the Ankara attack are currently in custody.
Turkish dailies also covered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's remarks on the Syrian civil war in a speech at the Turkey-Somalia Business Forum on Tuesday in Istanbul.
"Syria becomes a terror exporter country," HURRIYET's headline read, quoting Erdogan. According to the daily, Erdogan said that the chaos in Syria provided an environment for terrorist organizations to grow.
"Turkey, a country which feels the most pain from Syrian-origin threats, is the most affected country by the terror attacks,” the president said.
Syria has remained locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
More than 250,000 victims have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to UN figures.
In economic news, financial newspaper DUNYA covered a support package announced by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek for companies exporting to Russia and Iraq.
According to the daily, the package stipulates that their loan payments to state-owned Exim Bank be postponed for a year.
The downing of Russian jet on Nov. 24 has severely deteriorated relations between two countries. Following the incident, Moscow imposed a range of unilateral economic sanctions against Turkey, including a ban on food imports.
