BANGKOK: Investigations into the bombing of a shrine in the Thai capital earlier this month have swung to more than 20 Turkish nationals who entered Thailand in the 15 days before the attack.
Police and immigration investigators are focusing on the personal data and backgrounds of the Turkish visitors, including any ties to an extremist group, according to sources quoted in the Thai media.
They are also examining photographs of the Turkish nationals arriving at Thai airports to see if they match a police drawing of a key suspect who left a backpack at the Erawan shrine on August 17.
A blast tore through a crowd at the shrine soon after, killing 20 people and injuring more than 120 others in the largest attack in Thailand in years.
There has been no shortage of theories on the perpetrators of the attack, including the possibility of the attack having been revenge for the deportation of 109 Uighurs to China, the work of disgruntled domestic political opponents or the escalating tactics of southern militants.
The Bangkok Post reported a meeting of investigators on Wednesday focused on the theory that the man captured on CCTV footage at the shrine might be a Turkish national.
Anthony Davis, a veteran security analyst with IHS-Jane's, has suggested that the most likely perpetrators were ultra-nationalist members of a far-right Turkish militant group called the Grey Wolves.
Speaking on a panel at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Thailand on Tuesday, Mr Davis said the Grey Wolves, an extremely violent group, and the unofficial youth wing of Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party [MHP], took part in attacks on the Thai embassy in Istanbul in response to the Thai military government deporting Uighurs to China in July.
In recent years Grey Wolves have taken up the cause of the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking ethnic group in China's western Xinjiang province, Mr Davis said.
Uighurs claim to be persecuted by the Chinese government and call the province "East Turkestan".
Thailand's deportation of Uighur men separated from their wives and children infuriated Uighurs.
Founded in the late 1960s, the Grey Wolves have plotted to assassinate religious and political leaders and have fought in Chechnya and on the side of Azerbaijanis against Armenians.
Mr Davis, a long-time Bangkok resident, said the Grey Wolves had ties with organised criminal networks worldwide.
But he did not rule out other possible perpetrators, including Thai dissident groups, Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand, Islamic State or al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.
Thai authorities say the attack was carried out with precision planning and the bomb was the most sophisticated used in Thailand.
Chinese tourists are believed to have been targeted at the shrine in central Bangkok which is popular with both Thais and foreign tour groups.
Authorities have linked a second bomb at a canal to the shrine blast, indicating a co-ordinated attack on the city.
No one was injured in the second blast.
Thai authorities have publicly played down the possibility that international terrorists were behind the attack, fearing a sharp drop in tourist arrivals in the country where tourism accounts for more than 10 per cent of the faltering economy.
Police and immigration investigators are focusing on the personal data and backgrounds of the Turkish visitors, including any ties to an extremist group, according to sources quoted in the Thai media.
They are also examining photographs of the Turkish nationals arriving at Thai airports to see if they match a police drawing of a key suspect who left a backpack at the Erawan shrine on August 17.
A blast tore through a crowd at the shrine soon after, killing 20 people and injuring more than 120 others in the largest attack in Thailand in years.
There has been no shortage of theories on the perpetrators of the attack, including the possibility of the attack having been revenge for the deportation of 109 Uighurs to China, the work of disgruntled domestic political opponents or the escalating tactics of southern militants.
The Bangkok Post reported a meeting of investigators on Wednesday focused on the theory that the man captured on CCTV footage at the shrine might be a Turkish national.
Anthony Davis, a veteran security analyst with IHS-Jane's, has suggested that the most likely perpetrators were ultra-nationalist members of a far-right Turkish militant group called the Grey Wolves.
Speaking on a panel at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Thailand on Tuesday, Mr Davis said the Grey Wolves, an extremely violent group, and the unofficial youth wing of Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party [MHP], took part in attacks on the Thai embassy in Istanbul in response to the Thai military government deporting Uighurs to China in July.
In recent years Grey Wolves have taken up the cause of the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking ethnic group in China's western Xinjiang province, Mr Davis said.
Uighurs claim to be persecuted by the Chinese government and call the province "East Turkestan".
Thailand's deportation of Uighur men separated from their wives and children infuriated Uighurs.
Founded in the late 1960s, the Grey Wolves have plotted to assassinate religious and political leaders and have fought in Chechnya and on the side of Azerbaijanis against Armenians.
Mr Davis, a long-time Bangkok resident, said the Grey Wolves had ties with organised criminal networks worldwide.
But he did not rule out other possible perpetrators, including Thai dissident groups, Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand, Islamic State or al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.
Thai authorities say the attack was carried out with precision planning and the bomb was the most sophisticated used in Thailand.
Chinese tourists are believed to have been targeted at the shrine in central Bangkok which is popular with both Thais and foreign tour groups.
Authorities have linked a second bomb at a canal to the shrine blast, indicating a co-ordinated attack on the city.
No one was injured in the second blast.
Thai authorities have publicly played down the possibility that international terrorists were behind the attack, fearing a sharp drop in tourist arrivals in the country where tourism accounts for more than 10 per cent of the faltering economy.
