Ankara bombing: Facebook post asking 'You were Charlie, you were Paris. Will you be Ankara?’ is widely shared

By Samuel Osborne

A man has shared a Facebook post calling for empathy with the victims of a suicide bomb attack in the Turkish capital of Ankara that killed at least 34 people and wounded 125.

James Taylor, who lives in Ankara, encouraged readers to imagine the attacks happened where they live.

"[It] is the equivalent of a bomb going off outside Debenhams on the Drapery in Northampton, or on New street in Birmingham, or Piccadilly Circus in London," he wrote.

"Can you imagine being there? Can you imagine the place you walk past every day, the bus stops you use, the roads you cross being obliterated."

"Contrary to what many people think, Turkey is not the Middle East," Mr Taylor adds.

"Ankara is not a war zone, it is a normal modern bustling city, just like any other European capital, and Kizilay is the absolute heart, the centre."

"It is very easy to look at terror attacks that happen in London, in New York, in Paris and feel pain and sadness for those victims, so why is it not the same for Ankara? 

"Is it because you just don't realise that Ankara is no different from any of these cities?"

It is the third explosion in the Turkish capital since October 2015.

Last month, a Kurdish militant group claimed an attack on a military convoy which killed 28 people.

In October, 103 people were killed and 250 wounded when two suicide bombers targeted a peace rally in the deadliest attack in Turkish history.

Mr Taylor concludes: "You were Charlie, you were Paris. Will you be Ankara?"

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