Gajendra Singh November 21, 2003

Tags: terrorism , iraq , turkey

The following article was written after Nov 15th bombings in Turkey; Read Turkey: 'Sow war and reap terror' for perspective after Nov 20th bombings

rel="tag" href="/tag/European">European part of Turkey. It is a strong message to the Turks to keep off Iraq. It was also to punish Jews, 6 died out 23 fatalities, who were celebrating bar mitzvahs with the injured being more than 300 . Yaakov Romano brother of one of the 6 killed at Neve Shalom flew in from Israel and said "He used to call us every time a bomb went off in Israel just to make sure we’re OK, and now he’s been killed in an attack in Turkey." "Life can be strange," added Romano.

The Neve Shalom — Hebrew for "oasis of peace" — was attacked in 1986, when gunmen killed 22 worshippers and wounded 6 during a Sabbath service. That attack was blamed on the Palestinian militant Abu Nidal. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim group, was suspected for a bomb attack against the synagogue in 1992, but no one was killed. The synagogue has been under police guard since 1986. The Chief Rabbi of Turkey, Isak Haleva who received a slight hand injury in the attack said, ’To do something like this when people are praying - this is truly beyond the pale of human conduct. Even animals don’t commit evil like this.”

Soon after the blasts Turkey’s interior minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, reaching the site of destruction said that both bombings were probably carried out by the same group. The explosive material used in each was identical. "It is obvious that this terrorist attack has some international connections," added Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s foreign minister. Terrorist experts believe the bombs were constructed from a mixture of C4 ’Semtex type’ plastic explosives and a large quantity of homemade ammonium nitrate.

According to Turkish media local police arrested two women and a man on 16 November who were suspected of a connection with the bombings, but Interior Minister Aksu said police were still investigating. The security officials suggested that there was an al-Qaeda terrorist connection.
A claim by militant Turkish Islamic group, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders’ Front (IBDA-C), for the blasts was not taken seriously. It was too sophisticated an operation for it to carry out. Recent intelligence had indicated that Al Qaeda might be planning attacks in Turkey. IBDA-C’s claims were dismissed by the Turkish Police as a hoax. ’The IBDA-C has a history of claiming responsibility for atrocities it didn’t commit,’ said Umit Ozdag, an Ankara terrorism expert. ’[Their] leader was imprisoned three years ago. I doubt his followers have the organisational capacity to carry out such an attack.’

Nilufer Narli, an expert on Turkey’s Islamic groups and the dean of Istanbul’s Kidir Has University in Istanbul, said the Raiders’ Front lacked the resources to carry out such a sophisticated attack. Roland Jacquard, head of the International Terrorism Observatory in Paris, thought that the likeliest suspect was the militant group Ansar al-Islam, which the Pentagon has called the principal “terrorist adversary” of US forces in Iraq. Jacquard said claims of responsibility should be treated cautiously, but that IBDA/C was also very close to Ansar.

According to a western intelligence source it appeared to be a home-grown group acting in the style of al-Qaeda and according to their agenda. ’It is possible they had some input or assistance from someone close to bin Laden or his aides but there are a growing number of militants within Turkey with the will and, as we now see, the means to cause massive destruction. This could be seen as an "overspill’ from what’s happening in Iraq.’ Another specialist on Islamic fundamentalism in Turkey, Rusen Cakir, said Al Qaeda might have struck in Turkey because of Turkey’s close ties with the United States and with Israel. Turkey, is the member of NATO, with almost a defence alliance with Israel. The two sides have conducted many joint military maneuvers annually, greatly upsetting neighboring Arab countries. Turkey’s offer to send troops to stabilize Iraq also angered the Arabs So the offer was retracted this month after Iraqi leaders including the Governing Council opposed Turkish troops for Iraq.

Jerusalem said it seemed to be the work of a Qaeda affiliate, to punish Turkey for its ties to Israel and the United States. Alon Liel, a former director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry who was posted in Turkey, said security provided by Israelis and Turkish police at Istanbul’s synagogues was always tight.

He said “the warming of relations between Turkey and Israel and the influx of about 300,000 Israeli tourists to Turkey every year had positive effects on Istanbul’s Jews.” ( Nearly two hundred thousand Jews migrated from Romania to Israel, tens of thousand return as tourists every year spending hours playing at the casino to take their mind of tensions at home.) It may be recalled that on 14 October, a suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle outside the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad, killing 2 persons and wounding over 13.

Israeli reaction
In a statement Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed shock and outrage over the killing of innocent citizens in the two terrorist attacks and said that "The Government has complete confidence that the Turkish legal and security authorities will apprehend and bring to justice those responsible for the despicable murders." According to Israeli media, Sharon ordered the Shin Bet and Mossad security services to look into the Istanbul blasts and learn whatever they could. At Israeli consulates and embassies throughout the world, instructions were issued to tighten security measures, including restricting vehicular traffic nearby.

Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, called the bombings "not an attack against Israel, against Jews, or even against Turks " but a "crime against humanity." He also linked the attacks to anti-Semitism that he said was disguised as opposition to Israel. "There’s an undeniable connection between the atmosphere of hatred that is promulgated and instigated against Israel and the wave of terrorist attacks in the world today," he said. But, he warned, "Once you give the terrorists an opening, the target may be not a synagogue in Istanbul on the holy day of the Sabbath, but a cathedral in Paris."

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom who reached Istanbul on 16 November to assuage fears of local Jewish leaders and meet with his Foreign Minister Gul declared that "terror is at work everywhere." Shalom also said earlier that "Terror is at work everywhere, and not necessarily in one specific country or another," "I think that the operation here shows both Turkey and other countries in the world that there is no place immune to terrorism. This is not a localized problem for Israel; terror hits New York, Baghdad, Bali, Mombassa, Casablanca and any place where they think that there is perhaps a country with more developed values, values closer to democracy, close to the West. These same extremist groups take measures against such countries, even if they are Muslim or Arab," he said. He added that he had come to demonstrate solidarity with "the Turkish people, the Turkish government and of course the Jewish community ... The message here is that we have a shared fate. We all suffer at the hands of the same, extreme groups who wish to hurt anyone who adopts values of democracy, freedom, equality and the rule of law."

"Israel expects the entire international community to strongly condemn [Saturday’s] terrorist acts, to take every measure, and to use all means at its disposal to fight terrorism and to bring the perpetrators to justice," Shalom said in a statement.

Shalom said that he would go to Brussels and Vienna to meet with foreign ministers of the EU-member states to discuss, among other things, anti-Semitism and recent events in Europe. While Israel’s Foreign Ministry has refrained from issuing a travel advisory against Israelis visiting Turkey, even so, Israeli officials feel that the dangers of Israeli travel to Turkey were increasing, according to Army Radio.

Many Israeli teams of explosives experts and criminal investigators have reached Istanbul. According to the Jewish Agency(JAFI), its team includes five social workers and psychologists and youth counselors who are experienced in dealing with victims of trauma.

Other reactions and condolences
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the bombings ’an attack against humanity’ President Bush strongly condemned the attacks. "The focus of these attacks on Turkey’s Jewish community, in Istanbul’s synagogues . . . remind us that our enemy in the war against terror is without conscience or faith," he said in a statement. Among those who conveyed condolences to Foreign minister Abdullah Gul were U.S. State Secretary Colin Powell and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Javier Solana, the EU’s high representative for foreign policy, made a written statement and condemned terrorist attacks in Istanbul. Solana said the attacks close to the two synagogues were an unacceptable expression of intolerance and rejection that had to be eradicated. Solana’s statement expressed horror at the attacks that killed many innocents. He offered condolences to the government and victims’ families.

Commission President Romano Prodi visited a synagogue in the Italian city of Milan to personally convey his sincerest sorrow to the Jewish communities, the EU statement said. EU was criticized for the poll held in the grouping which placed Israel along with Iran and north Korea as a threat to world peace Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder sent a message of condolences to Prime Minister Erdogan expressing sympathy with the Turkish people and the victims’ families. Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer made a written statement on behalf of German government and said they condemned the attacks on behalf of German government.

French President Jacques Chirac sent a message to President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and stated that France shared sorrows of Turkey following the explosions. Pope John Paul II sent his condolences to Turkey on Saturday after car bombs exploded outside two Istanbul synagogues and called for an end to violence. Other countries which condoled were Greece, Belgian, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria and Pakistan.

Indian Prime Minister ‘s visit to Syria
It is very fortuitous that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is in Syria, when in near by Iraq and Turkey events with far reaching effects are taking place. While expressing grave concern over the situation in Iraq and West Asia, Vajpayee also set the record straight. India’s coming closer to Israel and America did not mean that it was deserting its Arab friends. He said that India wanted sovereignty in Iraq to be handed over to the Iraqi people as early as possible.

Vajpayee’s visit comes two months after the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India and at a time when the US Congress has approved further sanctions against Syria. That Vajpayee has gone ahead with the visit in the holy month of Ramazan means how important India considers its relationship with the Arab world in general and Syria and Palestine in particular. External affairs minister Yashwant Sinha clarified that “The Prime Minister told President Assad that the Indian position on Palestine and the occupied territories had been made clear to Sharon during his visit to New Delhi.” There was no change in India’s policy towards West Asia; that it was “fully with the Palestinian cause” and called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian cities and other occupied territories. The occupied territories include Golan Heights that belong to Syria. The Prime Minister reiterated India’s position in his speech at an iftar hosted by Assad later in the evening, saying: “We have consistently called for comprehensive and lasting peace based on full implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 242, 338, 1397 and 497, and the Land for Peace principle.”

Jews and Turks;
The two synagogues are the center of Istanbul’s Jewish community. Through out history Turks always had good relations with the Jews. Ottoman Sultan Fethi, who conquered Constantinople the Byzantine capital and named it Istanbul in 1453, in Turkish tradition allowed all religious communities to live as protected millets. He settled many Jews in the new capital. When they were expelled from Spain, Ottoman empire gave them shelter. Around the second world war republican Turkey gave shelter to many Jews including hundreds of professors, escaping Nazi Germany Even after the gut wrenching events of the first world war, when the Ottoman empire collapsed, Armenians were massacred, Christians exchanged with the Turks in Greece, the Jews continued to live in Turkey, mostly in Istanbul. They provided the financial acumen as earlier Armenians and Christians were in trade and industry. It took Turks 60 years to take to trade and industry in 1980s under Turgut Ozal, otherwise a Turk till end 1970s hoped to become a soldier, policemen or Mudurbay ( office boss ) in some ministry or department. The Jews have lived amicably and prospered, and even inter-married with Turks. Those who converted to Islam are called “Donme “, one who turned- like in Doner Kebab. But sometimes Turkey’s Jews have also been squeezed for money as in 1940s. After the creation of Israel many Jews shifted to the new homeland. The Jewish population in Turkey now numbers about 25 ,000, but a Jew, Jefi Kamhi, was even elected member of Parliament in 1995.

Turkey Israel “Alliance”
Turkey recognized Israel in 1948, the first Muslim country .After the 1967 war and even after the 1973 war when the Arabs exploited the oil weapon, Turkey did not disrupt relations with Israel. While there was no de facto strategic alliance but there was close cooperation regarding rightist or leftist and revolutionary students movements specially during 1960s and 1970s. In 1971 Turkish students had picked on and assassinated Israeli CG in Istanbul, who was a former senior Mossed officer. Israel has also developed a top rate defence industry based on support and cooperation with USA. After the end of cold war, Turkey specially its armed forces felt a little left out.

So Turkey sold itself as a barrier between Europe and the middle East and Caucasus, both cauldrons of fundamentalism and chaos. Its informal alliance with Israel was useful and the latter’s influence with Washington could be exploited for US grants of sophisticated arms and equipment. There may be some truth in the perceived threat perceptions and the arms to be used to counter external threats, but militarism has been used to impose a Jacobin version of secularism to keep down leftists, Islamists and Kurds And much of the Turkish population was not too happy. How ever in November, 2002 elections the people by giving 2/3rd seat to the AKP with Islamist roots have given a clear indication. Over 90% also opposed US invasion of Muslim Iraq, which the military was very keen to join.

While it started changing its orientation towards Israel in early 1990s, in 1996, Turkey and Israel went public and signed an agreement for military cooperation. Much has been written about this evolving relationship with some political analysts calling it an "axis," an "entente," even an “alliance. Naturally the maximum criticism came from the countries in the Middle East who began to criticize and even condemn them both for an alliance against them. Of course there are no explicit commitments to assist one another in the event of an armed conflict, and thus making it an alliance, but a careful interpretation of the provisions of the document shows that it opened the door to a much enhanced cooperation between the two countries—a cooperation that could reach levels usually between allies as will be shown below. Of course the Israelis would like to go much further. Israel buys water from Manavgat Turkey, and Turkey is a popular destination for Israeli tourists , nearly 300,000 came last year.

Inside Turkey
In southeast of Turkey, a Kurdish rebellion raged from mid-1980s to 1999 and over 35.000 lives were lost, but that violence was of different kind – an insurgency. On the whole western Turkey as a result of high security measures has remained more or less free from violence. But attacks on left-wing writers by rightists and on Israeli targets by leftists have taken place over the years.

When the writer was posted in Ankara in December 1992, after the demolition of the Babri Mosque, an explosive device attached to the car of the Indian second Secretary in Ankara went off and damaged it but no one was hurt. The writer felt that rightist religious groups, while upset with the demolition of the mosque, had just wanted to warn India through this act. They could have easily killed someone. The authorities were unable to solve the crime.

Attacks in Western Turkey, specially like the 15 November kind are difficult to organise and take a lot of planning and care. This means the internal system has changed some what. When Necemettin Erbakan the first Islamist to set up Islamic parties was deputy prime minister in many coalition governments and even became prime minister in 1996 till he was forced to resign in 1997 by the armed forces for implementing Islamic agenda, had placed many of his part y men in ministries and police and other establishments.

AKP government taking advantage of the EU norms, which have to be fulfilled to enter Europe, succeeded in almost nullifying the military’s clout which it had always enjoyed through the top decision making National Security Council.The council has been reduced to an advisory body and made impotent. Claiming failure of intelligence the military would now try to hit back and try to get back some of the powers it has enjoyed since the inception of the republic. It considers it self the custodian of Ataturk’s legacy of secularism.

Tensions building up between Turkey’s secular elite, led by its powerful armed forces, and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has Islamic roots, have simmered ever since the latter’s electoral triumph last November 16, 2003. They are going to come under further strains. Tussles between the armed forces and religious political parties are nothing new in the Islamic world. In 1992, the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, on the verge of electoral victory and bringing in Sharia law and doing away with elections, was banned, leading to violence that is still smoldering. There is a constant battle between Islamist parties and the armed forces in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Since 1923 Turkey has had a laic (secular) constitution, which, according to many, is more Jacobin than genuinely secular. The country is a member of the Council of Europe, NATO, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and it has a customs agreement with the European Union. Preceded by modernizing and Westernizing reforms during the last century of the Ottoman rule and nearly 80 years after Ataturk’s sweeping reforms, Turkey’s experiment in democracy goes wobbly from time to time. But with its 67 million Muslims, Turkey is unlikely to be admitted into the EU any time soon, which is basically a Christian club. With violence now reaching Istanbul the chances are even less. EU member ship would allow freedom of movement to Turks every where in Europe.

Conclusions
Many Turkish experts suspect the bombings were a warning to Turkey, one of few Muslim countries to have ties with Israel. This secular country has seen a surge in support for Islamic sentiments and parties as elsewhere. Public opposition to planned US invasion of Iraq, a Muslim country had played a major role in Turkey’s parliament refusing US request last March to open a second front into Iraqi Kurdistan in north.

This writer believes that at the moment all forces from right to left from inside and outside Iraq are coming together to expel foreigners out of Iraq. The massive twin blasts at two synagogues in Istanbul is an act of revenge for daily killings of Palestinians and building of the much opposed wall which encroaches on Palestinian land. It would please Muslims, earn the good will of angry and frustrated Muslim youth all over the world and attract many of them to their cause. It also sends a very stern warning to Turks to keep off Iraq. If this thesis is true then Iraq might stay as one nation. What form it takes would be decided later by one who comes on top. There are many examples from history- Islamic history and middle east history. In Turkey Kemal Ataturk had temporized with all his friends and enemies but after getting full power eliminated or removed them, even some of his closest comrades. This is the inexorable logic of naked power. The fratricide and even patricide is part of Islamic history. In democracy one removes enemies without shedding blood. Middle East is not an arena of democracy. This is the land of Hama rules, where you rule or die.

The other example now being studied is Algeria. Political leader Ben Bella, who had spent most of his time in French prisons , was released when the French will collapsed is facing Algerian resistance. Gen de Gaulle had decided to cut his losses. Ben Bella joined up with Col Houari Boumiddienne, the army chief, who had mostly camped on the border of Algeria with his troops. Both raced to Algiers and took over power. Ben Bella became prime mister and Boumiddienne the defence minister. The fighting inside Algeria was done by FLN cadre under Vilaya ( Turkish Vilayat ) chiefs like Ait Ahmed and others. They were deprived in the share of power.

Then in 1965, Ben Bella and Boumidiene squared up for final battle for power. Ben Bella tried to downgrade Boumidienne’s taking advantage of Afro-Asian summit in June, but Col Boumidienne struck back. The writer saw from his flat next to the President’s Palace removal of Ben bella, with few shots being fired. In the 7 year war for Algerian independence, out of 11 million population one million, mostly young men were killed. There was no stomach left for any further blood letting. Only the street urchins raised some slogans against the coup. Not that the struggle for power has ceased in Algeria. Boumiddinne leaned to wards religion and soothed the Islamic sentiments of Algerians, but basically FLN just wanted to replace the French pied noire (colonists ) as rulers and not share the oil cake. Algeria was then caught up in the rising tide of resurgent Islam which was heralded by its 1992 elections. The struggle for power continues. Recently a senior and knowledgeable Indian Congress party leader Mani Shankar revealed that he was with Rajiv Gandhi on a peace making mission to Tehran in 1991 and when the latter enquired from Iranian president Ali Rafsanjani, who would succeed Saddam Hussein, the reply was Saddam Hussein. US led coalition now seems to be in a rush to handover power to an Iraqi body after only 6 months of occupation and losing 400 US soldiers.

But whether one or more nations emerges out of Iraq, it will be a dictatorship. Ataturk was an enlightened reformer and modernizer, but a dictator as told to his face by feisty Turkish admirer and intellectual Halide Edib.