Excuse me Great Britain, have you lost the plot?
British Prime Minister David Cameron was answering questions from Crispin Blunt, a Conservative deputy, in parliament on Tuesday. In response to the question of whether there is a danger that Turkey could play a double game with DAESH as Pakistan did in Afghanistan, Cameron said: "It is not fair to claim this. This is not a fair comparison. Turkey, which lost its own citizens [to DAESH], is a DAESH victim itself. If you talk to Turkish politicians like [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and [Prime Minister Ahmet] Davutoğlu, they are obviously concerned about Kurdish terrorism. As in the past, this is the case at present and it is more likely to happen in the future as well. You need to understand this. But, it is unfair to claim that Turkey does not sufficiently struggle to fight off DAESH in Syria."
This is the same old story. An average European politician, who relies merely on his prejudices, implies that Turkey sides with DAESH. His prejudice is triggered by the connection that he establishes between DAESH terror, Islam and Islamic countries such as Turkey, Iran and Syria. Fortunately, this time Cameron acted conscientiously and, as can be seen, gave Turkey its due. While Cameron was listening to the voice of his conscience in the face of the accusations of an impertinent orientalist, Turkey, over which British parliament was lingering, was rocked by a terrorist act in the same few hours.
Early on Tuesday morning, a DAESH suicide bomber detonated himself in Sultanahmet Square, a historic site where Hagia Sophia is located. Almost all of the casualties from the attack were European tourists. Initial reports were that the perpetrator of the attack was not a member of the PKK, which has killed hundreds of civilians for several months, but a DAESH militant. Moreover, this was not the first DAESH attack in Turkey, as it perpetrated a twin suicide bombing in Ankara on Oct. 10, 2015, killing 102 people. Just a few months before the Ankara attack, it murdered dozens of young people in a suicide bombing in Suruç in the southeast, which is densely populated by the Kurds. It is possible to cite many similar instances, but let us remember DAESH's hackneyed harassment on the Turkish border and its recent attack on Turkish troops deployed in Iraq's Bashiqa camp.
All of these are the incidences that have taken place just over the past five or six months. Turkey is the country that DAESH attacks most apart from the territory in which it struggles for domination. This is because Turkey is the country that conducts the anti-DAESH struggle in the most efficient way. However, European politicians still argue whether Ankara gives partial support to DEASH even on a day when DAESH committed a massacre in the country. Indeed, they have nothing to do other than look for someone to hold responsible for the terror, which was caused by the Syrian civil war, in order to ease their conscience. Furthermore, they cannot remain indifferent to this war that has brought them to face thousands of migrants. This being the case, Turkey becomes the most pertinent usual suspect for Europe despite fighting terrorist elements in the region such as DAESH and the PKK and taking in around 2 million Syrian refugees.
Indeed, they had better look in the mirror instead of their surroundings to see the true perpetrator. There they will see their masterful politicians who carelessly mapped the Middle East with a ruler without paying regard to borders, cultures, religions, languages or even families. They will also see the U.S., which accepts provides arms aid to the PKK's Syrian affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD), although the entirety of Europe, including Great Britain accepts the PKK as a terrorist organization in that mirror. Moreover, they will see Russian businessmen who sell DAESH oil to the Damascus regime, Syrian President Bashar Assad who compromised with DAESH in the past so that it would slaughter moderate opposition groups, and many others.
Fortunately, Europeans are not like their politicians. A British tourist who witnessed the attack in the Sultanahmet Square told Al Jazeera: "We will not cow to terrorism." This remark is an indicator showing that we should not despair.
This is the same old story. An average European politician, who relies merely on his prejudices, implies that Turkey sides with DAESH. His prejudice is triggered by the connection that he establishes between DAESH terror, Islam and Islamic countries such as Turkey, Iran and Syria. Fortunately, this time Cameron acted conscientiously and, as can be seen, gave Turkey its due. While Cameron was listening to the voice of his conscience in the face of the accusations of an impertinent orientalist, Turkey, over which British parliament was lingering, was rocked by a terrorist act in the same few hours.
Early on Tuesday morning, a DAESH suicide bomber detonated himself in Sultanahmet Square, a historic site where Hagia Sophia is located. Almost all of the casualties from the attack were European tourists. Initial reports were that the perpetrator of the attack was not a member of the PKK, which has killed hundreds of civilians for several months, but a DAESH militant. Moreover, this was not the first DAESH attack in Turkey, as it perpetrated a twin suicide bombing in Ankara on Oct. 10, 2015, killing 102 people. Just a few months before the Ankara attack, it murdered dozens of young people in a suicide bombing in Suruç in the southeast, which is densely populated by the Kurds. It is possible to cite many similar instances, but let us remember DAESH's hackneyed harassment on the Turkish border and its recent attack on Turkish troops deployed in Iraq's Bashiqa camp.
All of these are the incidences that have taken place just over the past five or six months. Turkey is the country that DAESH attacks most apart from the territory in which it struggles for domination. This is because Turkey is the country that conducts the anti-DAESH struggle in the most efficient way. However, European politicians still argue whether Ankara gives partial support to DEASH even on a day when DAESH committed a massacre in the country. Indeed, they have nothing to do other than look for someone to hold responsible for the terror, which was caused by the Syrian civil war, in order to ease their conscience. Furthermore, they cannot remain indifferent to this war that has brought them to face thousands of migrants. This being the case, Turkey becomes the most pertinent usual suspect for Europe despite fighting terrorist elements in the region such as DAESH and the PKK and taking in around 2 million Syrian refugees.
Indeed, they had better look in the mirror instead of their surroundings to see the true perpetrator. There they will see their masterful politicians who carelessly mapped the Middle East with a ruler without paying regard to borders, cultures, religions, languages or even families. They will also see the U.S., which accepts provides arms aid to the PKK's Syrian affiliate Democratic Union Party (PYD), although the entirety of Europe, including Great Britain accepts the PKK as a terrorist organization in that mirror. Moreover, they will see Russian businessmen who sell DAESH oil to the Damascus regime, Syrian President Bashar Assad who compromised with DAESH in the past so that it would slaughter moderate opposition groups, and many others.
Fortunately, Europeans are not like their politicians. A British tourist who witnessed the attack in the Sultanahmet Square told Al Jazeera: "We will not cow to terrorism." This remark is an indicator showing that we should not despair.
Last Update: January 15, 2016 01:49