[8] Earlier in 2016, Turkey had been hit by a number of bombings carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK).

In their statement, the group stated that Turkish people are not their direct target and their "Team Martyr Tirej" carried out the action with "utmost attention", but that no "comfortable life" should be expected in Turkey while the imprisonment of their leader Abdullah Öcalan continued.

[1] Another of the victims was Berkay Akbaş, a medical student studying in Ankara who had been visiting Istanbul and happened to be passing in front of the stadium in a car during the attack.

[17] Police victims include Adem Oguz, Adem Serin, Ali Aksoy, Durmus Ocal, Hasan Bilgin, Ilker Uylas, Kadir Yildirim, Mehmet Atici, Metin Duzgun, Mustafa Ozturk, Yasin Ike, Suleyman Sorkut, Okan Dogan, Soner Idil, Mehmet Zengin, Oguzhan Duyar and Hamdi Dikmen.

[22] According to Mark Lowen, the BBC's correspondent in Turkey, Kurdish militant groups were implicated by the fact that the police were targeted.

[23] Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said that signs were suggesting that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) might have carried out the attack.

Two days after the bombing, the council of Beşiktaş municipality decided to rename the location Martyrs' Hill (Şehitler Tepesi) in honor of the people who died there.

[9] The Turkish Democracy Platform, a pro-government group formed in opposition to the coup d'état attempt earlier in the year, announced that an anti-terror march would be held at noon on 11 December.

[30] The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) released a statement condemning the attack and calling on what they considered "policies provoking polarization and conflict" to stop for an end to violence in Turkey.