These are difficult days for Turkey. Just days after a suicide car bombing in the capital Ankara claimed 35 lives, a second suicide bomber killed four and wounded dozens in Istanbul. The first attack was claimed by an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.
The second appears to be the work of ISIL. Given that all terror attacks in Turkey over the past two years have been linked to either the PKK or ISIL, it is almost certain one of those two groups is the culprit.
Our hearts go out to the victims of this latest attack and to Turks across the country, many of whom will be wondering if there will be further attacks. That possibility cannot be ruled out – the war with Kurdish separatist groups and ISIL’s presence inside the country means that Turkey is now on the front line of the broader war against terror.
There is no doubt it has paid a heavy price for the Syrian conflict and for its generous role in hosting millions of refugees. It still hosts more Syrian refugees than any other large European or Middle Eastern country. Even with the new deal with the European Union – which came into force yesterday – Turkey will still play host to millions of Syrians. It will need financial and political support to deal with that.
Further, to a large degree the renewed war with Kurdish separatists has its roots in the Syrian crisis. It was a bombing targeting Kurdish activists – attributed to ISIL – in summer 2013 that provide the spark for the renewed violence; the reactions from the Kurdish side escalated into the general battle we see today.
It is important, then, that we do not forget how long and hard this battle will be. Much has been made, in western media and on social networking sites, of the disconnect between the amount of attention given to terror attacks in Paris and recent ones in Turkey. Too few Europeans appear to grasp the severity of the conflict in which Turkey is engaged.
But all these attacks are related. The Syrian war is destabilising the entire Middle East and Europe. Turkey is on the front lines of that conflict. Our thoughts and prayers are with Turkey tonight, not merely out of sympathy, but because the war in Turkey is same war against extremism we face.
