On Sunday 21 and Monday 22 August, many European leaders spoke out against the suicide attack carried out at a Kurdish wedding in Gaziantep, a city in south-eastern Turkey, on the evening of 20 August.
The attack left at least 54 people dead, including many children, and at least 60 people injured and requiring hospital treatment. According to the Turkish authorities, the attack is believed to have been carried out by the organisation Islamic State and the suicide bomber was believed to have been aged between 12 and 14.
In a joint press release dated Sunday 21 August, the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Federica Mogherini, and the commissioner for enlargement negotiations, Johannes Hahn, expressed their solidarity and sympathy with the government and the people of Gaziantep and the whole of Turkey. "We will continue to strengthen our cooperation with the Turkish authorities to prevent and counter terrorism. We are together in a common fight. We are all called to stand together to protect security, democracy and peace", they stressed.
Mogherini and Hahn said that Turkey had been "dramatically" targeted once again and this time, "in a city – Gaziantep – that is a symbol of the pain caused to thousands of people from the conflict in Syria". Gaziantep, which is close to the Syrian border, hosts many Syrian refugees. "The suffering of all the people hit by war, and terror, is our suffering", they said.
Many European commissioners and ministers have expressed their horror at the attack. At a meeting with the press on Monday 22 August, European Commission spokesperson Alexander Winterstein extended the EU's deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to all those injured. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)