Turkey ISIS

Per Concordiam, 2017

The Reina nightclub attack, which occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey, and the counterterrorism operations after the attack provide valuable security lessons. The attacker, Abdulkadir Masharipov, spent a year in a sleeper cell in Konya, Turkey, before receiving orders from his emir in Raqqa, Syria, using the Telegram app. He not only carried out an attack in the name of ISIS, killing 39 people and wounding many others, but also dodged police scrutiny at the scene by pretending to be one of the victims. ISIS has a heavy presence in Turkey, with several established cells and safe havens, and it has been openly threatening Turkey since the al-Bab military campaign in Syria. Turkey is a bridge between the East and West, and the danger of Turkey becoming the gateway for European terrorist activity cannot be ignored. With ISIS starting to lose vast territories in Syria and Iraq, Turkey’s capacity to counter terrorist threats and stem terrorist activity within its borders is critical for global security. http://perconcordiam.com/isis-in-turkey/

2015

2016

In the context of the civil war in Syria, Turkey has been accused of intense co-operation with Islamic State. The accusations have been coming for some time from the West, and also from the Turkish opposition and the Kurds. The Russian government has also joined in the accusations over the past few months.

PERCEPTIONS: Journal of International Affairs, 2016

The Islamic State's Plan for Turkey, 2016

The video “Turkey and the Fire of Racism” begins with a map of 7th-century Arabia, outlining how Islam came to spread to Central Asia, and thereby to the Turks. It then goes into a narrative of how the Turks have turned their back on Islam in favor of national ties, and the decline they have suffered as a consequence. The 17-minute, high-definition propaganda piece features fancy animations, militants the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) talking into the camera, and idyllic cut scenes, all delivered in crisp Istanbul Turkish, save one Kurdish portion. The video is part of a stream of Turkish-language recruitment material that ISIL has been reeling off recently. The past few months have seen a proliferation of high-quality websites and translations of Salafi texts, all of which feed into Salafi indoctrination groups in Turkey’s major cities.

Análisis del Real Instituto Elcano (ARI), 2009

Theme: If the trend towards the integration of Turkish Jihadists into larger transnational networks continues, the threat from Jihadist terrorism is likely to grow in Turkey and in countries in which there are sizable Turkish diaspora communities. Summary: In the 1980s and 1990s, Jihadist terrorism in Turkey was an isolated phenomenon represented by two organisations, the Turkish Hizbullah and the Great East Islamic Raiders' Front (IBDA-C). The former was a Kurdish group and the latter predominantly Turkish. Both were nationalist in outlook and strategy. From 2001, however, many Turkish Jihadists have integrated into larger transnational networks, increasingly transcending national affiliations. Instead of fighting Turkish secularists and moderate Islamists, they attack Western targets. They have developed a new interest in Jihadist causes worldwide and have broadened their cooperation with Uzbek, Afghan, Pakistani and Arab Jihadists. The Turkish diaspora in Europe is an important element in this development. If this trend continues, the terrorist threat in Turkey and in countries with sizable Turkish diaspora communities is likely to grow. Analysis: Turkey is probably the country with the most diverse terrorist scene in Europe and the Middle East. The main threat remains the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Since the early 1980s it has fought an insurgency in southeastern Turkey which subsequently escalated into a civil war. Its aim was to gain independence for the Kurdish people. Although it has never come close to achieving its goals, it has been able to hinder the stabilisation of Turkish rule in the eastern provinces and-mainly from its bases in Iraqi Kurdistan-remains a threat today. Although dominant, the Kurdish insurgency is only one among several terrorist problems. Turkey was and is home to several left-wing militant groups such as the Revolutionary Left (Devrimci Sol) and its successor organisation the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (Devrimci Halk Kurtuluş Partisi/Cephesi, DHKP-C), which have lost some of their former relevance, but have remained active in Turkey and among the Turkish diaspora in Europe.

With the eruption of the Arab Spring, Turkey was side-lined from regional affairs. In the region, its ambitions to be a regional power and the depth of its strategic discourse were seen as being neo-Ottoman claims. Particularly during the Arab Spring, Turkey’s narrative of being a model state for Tunisia, Egypt and others was not well received by the new regimes in the region. The instability that prevailed in countries who experienced an ‘Arab Spring’ struck at Turkey’s trade relations, as well as at their diplomatic relations with them. Turkey, as a power between countries in a volatile neighbourhood, Turkey found the sustainability of policies, such as zero problems with its neighbours and value-based approaches, was really difficult to attain. This was also problematic for the West as, for them, Turkey was a regional success story. While Turkey has been losing touch in the Middle East, internally the government has begun to show authoritarian tendencies, which gradually estranged Turkey from the West. Now, surrounded by fragile if not failed, states, Ankara has been facing challenges in dealing with refugee flows and border controls. The rise of radical militant groups on her borders, isolation -or ‘precious loneliness’, in Turkish officials’ words, is not sustainable for Turkey. As a transit country for both refugees, irregular migrants and terrorists, Turkey’s border security has become one of the main concerns for Europeans states, primarily for the UK and France. The growing numbers of European citizens joining ISIL by passing through Turkish lands has caused a stirring amongst European governments. In this regard, Turkish border security practices, as well as Ankara’s position in regional conflicts, have direct effects on the West and Britain. The EU, in general, and particularly the UK’s close collaboration with Turkey is important. From intelligence sharing to providing know how and technology for border controls, such collaboration is crucial to prevent security threats. The Charlie Hebdo attacks and the case of three British teenagers who joined ISIL in March, 2015, are among the cases that have raised concerns about Turkey’s Middle Eastern policy. In most of the cases, like the Charlie Hebdo one, Turkey appears to be the transit country for militants moving to/from Europe. In conclusion, Turkey’s Middle Eastern policy is the key to the security of both British and other European citizens.