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Timeline: Turkey’s bloody year

The son of Turkish Durmus Kilinc, center, reacts after rescue team members removed the dead body of his father from a destroyed building, in Elbistan, southeastern Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. Tens of thousands of people who lost their homes in a catastrophic earthquake huddled around campfires in the bitter cold and clamored for food and water Thursday, three days after the temblor hit Turkey and Syria. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

(CNN) — In one of the most terror-scarred countries in the world, not even New Year’s Day was safe from an attack.

Just an hour after the new year began, a gunman shot his way into a popular high-end nightclub in Istanbul, killing at least 35 people. Scores more were wounded.

The attack was the latest in a wave of deadly violence that has killed people in different parts of Turkey throughout the past 365 days.

2016 was a violent year for Turkey. There were suicide blasts claimed by ISIS and running battles between government forces and outlawed Kurdish PKK militants. A failed coup sparked a wide-ranging crackdown on alleged coup plotters. And the Russian ambassador was gunned down by a man shouting about the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Below are some of the major attacks that occurred this year:

December 20: Assassination of top Russian diplomat

A gunman shouting “Do not forget Aleppo!” assassinated Russia’s ambassador to Turkey at an Ankara art gallery in what leaders of Russia and Turkey called a provocative terror attack.

The gunman, identified as police officer Mevlut Mert Altintas, was killed in the attack on Ambassador Andrey Karlov, according to various news organizations including Reuters.

December 17: Attack on soldiers in Kayseri

A car bomb exploded near a public bus, killing 13 soldiers and wounding 55 people, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency reported.

The blast happened near Erciyes University in the central province of Kayseri and some civilians might have been wounded, Anadolu said.

December 10: Twin bombings in Istanbul

A Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for twin bombings in Istanbul that killed at least 44 people, mostly police officers, and wounded 155 others.

The explosions, one large blast followed by a smaller one, occurred about 11 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) after a heavily attended soccer game at Besiktas Vodafone Arena.

The Kurdish Freedom Hawks (TAK), a breakaway group of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), said in a statement on its website that the Turkish people were not the target of the attack.

November 4: The Diyarbakir bombing

A car bomb targeting a police station in southeastern Turkey killed seven civilians and two police officers. It also injured over 100 people.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack in Diyarbakir, according to a statement circulated online by the ISIS-affiliated Amaq agency.

October 9: ‘Suicide rush’ near Iraqi border

A bomb exploded outside a police station in the Semdinli district of Hakkari Province — about 48 miles from the Iraqi border — killing at least 18 people.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said eight civilians died and 10 soldiers were killed in the attack, in which a pickup truck laden with about five tons of explosives made a “suicide rush” at a checkpoint outside the station. The PKK claimed responsibility for the attack.

The US condemned the bombing “in the strongest terms”.

September 12: Car bomb near government offices

Suspected Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb near local government offices in the southeastern city of Van, wounding at least 50 people.

The blast hit some 200 meters from the Van provincial governor’s office. It occurred a day after two dozen mayors from Kurdish-run municipalities were stripped of their office.

August 21: The bloody wedding

A suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives at a wedding party in the southeastern city of Gaziantep, killing at least 53 people and injuring about 100. The Turkish president blamed ISIS for the attack.

August 18: Three bombings in the east

Three bomb attacks targeting Turkish security forces in the east of the country killed 12 people and wounded nearly 300 others.

Blasts at police stations in Van and Elazig killed four police officers and two civilians, reports said.

In Bitlis province, five soldiers died when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in the village of Gayda. In nearby Nazar, a village guard was killed and a soldier wounded in clashes between security forces and PKK militants.

Turkish officials blame the PKK for all three attacks.

July 15: The failed coup

An attempted military coup in Turkey left at least 290 people dead and over 1,400 injured in a chaotic night of violence. Since then, tens of thousands of people have been arrested in the crackdown on individuals suspected of having ties to alleged coup plotters.

June 28: Ataturk Airport attack

Three assailants killed at least 36 people and injured scores of others in a gun and suicide bombing attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport. An additional 147 people were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Turkish officials blamed ISIS for the attack.

June 8: Car bomb in Midyat

Three people were killed by a car bomb in the southeastern Turkish town of Midyat — the second such attack on Turkish police targets in two days.

June 7: 11 killed in Istanbul

A car bomb attack targeting a police bus killed 11 people in Istanbul, Anadolu reported, citing police officials.

The blast, in the Beyazit neighborhood of Istanbul’s historic Fatih district, occurred during morning rush hour. It killed seven police officers and four civilians and left 36 people injured, three of them critically, authorities said. Four people were detained.

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