CEYLAN YEGINSU

A large blast ripped through the heart of Ankara, Turkey’s capital, Sunday, killing at least 34 people and injuring 125, government officials said.

A car bomb exploded in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Wednesday, striking a convoy of buses carrying Turkish soldiers and killing at least 28 people, government officials said.

A Syrian suicide bomber set off an explosion in the historic central district of Istanbul on Tuesday, killing 10 people and wounding at least 15 others, in an attack that the Turkish government attributed to the Islamic State.

The explosions Saturday took place before a peace rally protesting the conflict between Kurdish militants and the government.

With the United States continuing to pressure Turkey to do more in the fight against the Islamic State, Turkey’s position has hardened around an idea it has pushed for years as a strategy to confront the chaos of the Syrian civil war: a buffer zone along its frontier with Syria.

A new report released by the Turkish parliament’s Human Rights Commission has revealed inhumane living conditions in a number of the country’s prisons.