Following recent attacks in Ankara and Istanbul, last week terrorism targeted the European capital of Brussels, reminding everyone that terrorism is a global problem, and that the fight against terrorism requires both major effort and great coordination among all countries. Daily Sabah sat with Dr. Necati Anaz, the director of the International Center for Terrorism and Transnational Crime (UTSAM) and discussed global fears of terrorism. Dr. Anaz said that as long as the current crisis continues in Syria, terror will continue to scourge all aspects of human life. Dr. Anaz believes that terror will inevitably expand into Europe, if Europe does not focus on politics and sociology which nurture terror in Syria and Iraq; he also asserts that no country or continent is far enough to keep globalizing terror away.DS: Are we facing globalized terror with the recent attacks in Ankara, Istanbul and Brussels?Let's start with how terrorism changed after the Cold War. The world was under the influence of a liberal security discourse following the end of the Cold War. Security started to be conceived of in an anthropocentric, not state-centric, way. Political scientists such as Joseph Nye were focused on international political and security discourses, which were based on the influence of soft powers shaped by American liberalism and democratic policies. In this era, the West showed interest in the Middle East only as exporters of oil and to provide security to Israel. The West was in contact with all the dictators who would keep the oil flowing and would not threaten Israel's security. The impoverished people of the Middle East, who could not find their place in the new world order after the Cold War, started to heed radical Islamic discourses, while following leaders such as Osama Bin Laden who could challenge the contemporary world system, seeing them as the means for a way out. This development led to 9/11, which changed the currents of the global politics, which was followed by the implementation of militarist and hard power elements. Later with the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, we now see global terror organizations such as DAESH which are claiming to be sovereign states or caliphates.The inability to reach a compromise in the Syrian War will exacerbate the situation, rendering terror almost unresolvable, while causing it to spread abroad. DAESH, believing that it can shape the global politics with systematic terror, will not keep its activities limited to Syria and Iraq, but will expand these to Europe. As long as the current crisis continues in Syria, terror will continue to scourge all aspects of human life. The most affected countries will be Turkey as Syria's neighbor and also Europe, who didn't take initiative in providing a solution to this crisis.DS: Can you please clarify this issue? Why would terrorist activities increase in Europe?Europe does not understand two things. As the world became global, two geostrategic changes occurred. Firstly, all civilizations became closer in an unprecedented manner. Secondly, some elements of certain civilizations became indispensable for other civilizations. Whether they like it or not, Europe has absorbed millions of Muslim inhabitants. Therefore political, social and economic developments in Europe started to affect not just Europeans, but Muslims as well. Similarly, developments in the Middle East also started to affect Europe. For a time, Europe believed that they could protect themselves from these socio-political changes, as they were in a different continent. They reckoned that the Mediterranean Sea and the Schengen Agreement would protect them. They were mistaken. The most obvious example is the Syrian refugees who crossed the Mediterranean Sea ignoring the deadly consequences and travelled right into the middle of Europe. This didn't just distress Europeans, but caused them to partially abandon their humanist discourse, which has been constructed over centuries. While ignoring the bodies of children washing up on the Mediterranean shore, Europe became afraid of letting the refugees enter their territory. However, the Syrian conflict has entered Europe and now the conflict is a part of Europe's reality. If Europe does not focus more on the politics and sociology which nurture terror in Syria and Iraq, terror will inevitably expand into Europe.DS: So is there a clash of civilizations, as Huntington suggested?No, I do not evaluate the issue as a clash of civilizations. Terror does not possess the qualities of a civilization. I am interested in the globalization of terror. As knowledge, commodities, people, money and crime have become global, terror has also become global and transnational. For example, concerning the Paris attacks, if weapons were acquired from one country, the attackers came from a different one and the order was received from another one, we can no more talk about local terror.The attacks which took place in cities like New York, Madrid, London, and Istanbul are examples of terror becoming global. What I am saying is that no country or continent is far enough to keep globalizing terror away. The U.S. experienced this in 9/11, as oceans were not enough to protect them. Similarly, Europe is continuing to be a target for terror and will be, until a comprehensive and global fight against terror is started.DS: One of the most important elements which nurtures terror is radicalization. What are the main reasons of the increased inclination toward radicalism?There is a basic fact: you can kill the terrorist, but cannot kill terror itself. The West has always fought against terrorists and continues to fight against them with aircraft and soldiers. The real elements which nurture terror were disregarded. Europe still is not able to integrate the Muslim minority into its society. The attackers of Charlie Hebdo were French, but also immigrants. Europe has a systematically discriminatory and alienating approach towards minorities. On the other hand, the U.S. is on its way in turning into Europe. In this regard, Trump's electoral discourse is distressing. The most terrifying part is that this is being accepted by Republicans. This situation is detracting the U.S. from being a supranational country, while also leaving common Muslims to the mercy of the radicals.Another dimension of this issue is to take steps in order to cut the supply of radicalism. If we approach the security issues in a more humane way, instead of an interest-oriented approach, we can minimize terror, if not completely eradicating it. As the world continues to bomb Syria and Iraq, opportunistic terrorist organizations such as DAESH will continue to recruit militants from every part of the world by playing innocent. It will be naïve to dream of peace in the following decades, if millions of Syrians are permanently removed from their country.DS: Isn't this a biased analysis? Isn't this accusing only the West as the source of radicalism inadequate to explain the increasing xenophobia in Eastern societies?This is an issue which has been discussed for a long time in this region. Of course, certain aspects of radicalism which emerge from this region have to be discussed as well. No one is denying the existence of terror in the Middle East. The Islamic world has not yet been able to determine the ontological position of DAESH. The Islamic world was unable to standardize how to live with diverse groups. They could not revive the ability of living with different religious, lingual and ethnic groups, which they were able to practice perfectly for centuries before. This region has to revise relations with violence. For example, the Islamic world has to start a new examination process which is not limited to the reactive and rejectionist movements who behead people and incinerate them alive. Therefore, the Islamic world has to think about how a group which can massacre innocent people could emerge amidst them, and what were the reasons or factors.DS: It was revealed that the perpetrator of the Brussels attacks, which took place a couple of days after the Istanbul bombing, was also DAESH. What are the factors which enable DAESH to maintain its activity, even after two years of coalition bombings and operations?There is a social base which creates DAESH. Without further examining them, it is impossible to eradicate DAESH. There will be a DAESH-like organization, no matter what, and if someone is intending to reshape the region on a sectarian basis, it will also be a useful utility. The militarist solutions which will be employed without considering the region's political and cultural realities will continue to nurture DAESH.Moreover, as long as the Syrian crisis lingers, DAESH or groups similar to DAESH will continue to maintain their foothold. The inability to resolve the Syrian crisis is what nurtures DAESH. Even though its leadership suffered heavy casualties as a result of the U.S. airstrikes, it is not enough to destroy DAESH. If DAESH can realize attacks on different parts of the world in 2016, it means that we are yet at the very beginning of a resolution. While DAESH continues to be a territorial organization, it still maintains its terrorist cell structure.DS: Last week, 10 terrorist groups which are active in Turkey declared that they had merged under the name of "United Revolutionary Movement." How do you evaluate this development?The PKK is either concluding guerilla tactics or is about to. Therefore, they are finishing the conflicts in the rural parts of the country and coming into the cities. This is one of the strategies of ethnic leftist terror organizations. First, they fight in the rural areas, then move into the cities and lastly incite riots. In this manner, the PKK has moved into cities, as they needed new coalitions for logistics, manpower and support. This coalition would not only provide military benefits to the terrorist organization, but also would receive support from the people. They think that this alliance would allow them to be successful in terror, when it came to the complete popular uprising. Thus this alliance is about logistics and strategy.DS: Why the PKK did change its strategy? Why did it feel the need to shift from rural to urban areas?There was a concept of "Kurdish momentum" coined during the Arab Spring. It pondered as to whether a Kurdish state could be established while there is a turbulent environment in the Middle East. This hope moved the PKK and its armed wing into the cities to organize the people, to inform them about a possible attempt at autonomy, and to receive their support. This was the first dimension.The second dimension is about the reconciliation process in Turkey. This process caused the military wing of the PKK to panic and forced them to move into cities in order to sabotage it. During this process the state took the initiative, transforming eastern cities into the center of development. Cultural and social prohibitions which had become taboo were abolished and these cultural prohibitions were made meaningless to people. With all of these positive developments, there was a new hope for peace by people. They were talking about a permanent peace. If peace was realized, which was also supported by Abdullah Öcalan, it would have meant the end of the PKK. It would have also meant Turkey getting rid of one of its burdens. However, this distressed the PKK and the political actors supporting them, making them order the PKK to move into the cities and sabotage the process. The PKK moved into the cities and for the first time the violence was near to where the people lived. Thus, they forced the people to choose between them or the state.The PKK was surprised, as the people of the region rejected supporting the PKK and left their homes. The PKK, thinking it could use people as human shields, gaining their support and to get the attention of the international community, failed. Considering Turkey's determination and the operational superiority of the security forces, the PKK lost the upper hand they were expecting to get and turned to attacks which target civilians, similar to al-Qaida.DS: How will this issue develop?The PKK will maintain its dual violence policies. First, they will continue to attack state institutions and security forces. Secondly, they will maintain attacks on civilians through affiliated terrorist organizations. They will try to pressure the government, while stating that no region of Turkey can escape from terrorism and the country is becoming non-functional. Therefore, the citizens will believe that they are notsafe in any part of the country and normal life will cease to exist. After this, the PKK will negotiate with the state and realize their demands, which they were unable to realize through years of terror.DS: While Turkey has been suffering from terrorism for many years, Turkish politicians are complaining that Turkey does not receive enough support from Europe or the world, as was indicated by the PKK tents in Belgium. In your opinion, what are the reasons? Is Turkey unable to explain its own view to the world?There are four lobby groups in Europe, which act against Turkey. The first is the Jewish lobby which became more prominent after 2009. Second is the Armenian lobby, which has a significant powerbase in France. Third is the Kurdish-Alevi lobby, consisting of people who had to leave Turkey due to wrongful security policies in the 1990s. While this lobby is powerful, it also provides monetary and logistic support to the PKK. Fourth is the Gülenist lobby, which is damaging Turkey's image in the international community, while also trying to depose the government. These four lobbies block Turkey from explaining itself to the European community. These lobbies, which see Turkey's fight against terror as massacring Kurds, are targeting the president.Moreover, protests such as Gezi Park which puts Turkey into a spiral of violence caused a gap between Turkey and Europe regarding security. These protests were supported by the said lobbies, along with the European mainstream media. In this manner, the crisis between Turkey and Europe is not about PR, but it is an ontological issue.

It seems that the plan to establish cantons in southeastern Anatolia, similar to the ones in northern Syria, has failed. What will the PKK's next strategy be?

In my opinion, the violence employed by the PKK in recent days is the last gasps of the terror organization. The PKK is having a problem in explaining itself to the Kurdish population and as they have a problem, the people have started to put pressure on them. This organization is on the verge of losing the eastern part of Turkey, as well. This is the most positive achievement in the fight against terror. The PKK is preparing its own end with this violence, as they continue to lose support. Therefore, the PKK will try to gain the support of the international community while continuing their violent actions for a while. However, with the emergence of international consolidation after Brussels and Ankara attacks, the PKK will be unsuccessful in its pursuit.