Feb 9, 2018
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New Post has been published on FSRN
New Post has been published on http://fsrn.org/2014/10/turkey-approves-possibility-of-military-action-against-terrorist-threats/
Turkey approves possibility of military action against "terrorist threats"
In Syria, the civil war that’s raged for more than three years continues on multiple fronts. In the western city of Homs, as many as 41 elementary school children died Wednesday when two explosions targeted their school in a largely pro-government neighborhood. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
And fighting in northern Syria continues, where despite airstrikes, the the so-called Islamic State continues its advance on the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobane. Turkish authorities are preventing Turkish Kurds from crossing into Syria to aid Kurdish militias, and many question Anakara’s position on the group known in the West as ISIS.
But on Thursday, Turkish lawmakers gave the nod to military action against so-called “terrorist threats” in both Syria and Iraq. They also voted to allow US forces to use Turkish air bases. As Dorian Jones reports, the move is a reversal for the Islamist-rooted government that has even been accused of colluding with ISIS.
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The Turkish Parliament passed two motions enabling the government to carry out military operations in Iraq and Syria against what it calls terrorist threats. The legislation also allows foreign forces to use Turkey as a base for operations, opening the door for US planes to use key Turkish airbases.
Turkish military forces are already positioned along the Syrian-Kurdish border. Thousands of soldiers backed by tanks beefed up their presence there this week, initially deployed to control ongoing clashes between Syrian Kurds and Turkish security forces.
As the Islamic State continues a weeks-long siege on the town of Kobane just a mile or so from the border, many Kurds try to storm the frontier. They’re not trying to escape the fighting in Syria, but rather to enter the country and join the fight against the militant group.
“We want to go back to Kobane, to join our brothers and sisters fighting against these terrorists, who behead and cut the throats of our people'” explains Hasan, who only wanted to give his first name. “They have done such terrible things, and if Kobane falls, it will be even worse. But the Turks they are stopping us returning, it has become a prison here.”
The battles near the border, and Turkey’s role in the fight against ISIS, are complex.
For centuries, Kurds across the region have sought their own homeland. For the past three decades the PKK, a Kurdish rebel group in Turkey, has fought the Turkish state for autonomy and a tentative peace process now exists.
Cengiz Aktar of Istanbul’s Suleyman Sah University, says the city of Kobane is crucially important to Kurds in both Turkey and Syria. “Because the Kurds in the region, be they Turkish Kurds or Syrian Kurds, are actually realizing, applying … are practicing the autonomy, that the Turkish Kurds have been fighting for since years, already in Syria and Ankara does not like that.”
The motions passed this week do not specify the so-called Islamic State, but rather authorize military action against “terrorist threats.”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made it clear he thinks the fight against terrorism in the region should focus as much on the Kurdish rebel group the PKK as the Islamic State: “Hey world, if you openly speak out against ISIS as a terrorist organization, why don’t you openly speak out against PKK as a terrorist organization. We must make this struggle against all terrorist organizations in the region and against this understanding targeting Iraq and Syria.”
And even as Turkey’s Parliament moved toward military action against ISIS, allegations that Ankara has colluded with the jihadists persist.
A video that went viral on social media claims that Turkey sent a trainload of tanks and arms to IS in exchange for this month’s release of 46 Turkish prisoners. Other charges range from treating wounded IS fighters to turning a blind eye to illicit oil sales by the militant group to allowing them to use Turkey as a gateway for supporters to join its ranks, as what one Turkish writer described as a”jihadist super highway.”
Political scientist Nuray Mert of Istanbul University, says given that Turkey’s ruling party has an Islamist conservative background, Ankara must be clearer in words and actions in its condemnation of ISIS.
“Turkey is very reluctant to call them terrorist,” according to Mert. “There is no such a voice. Islamists or conservatives of Turkey now in power, they have been reluctant to be seen as critical of any movement, no matter how brutal or whatever to be critical of anything made in the name of Islam.”
But while the Turkish parliament did pass the motion authorizing military action, it has refused to indicate in what way it will join the military coalition. International relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University says there are clear and present dangers to any military action.
“If the reports are correct, ten percent of IS fighters are Turkish,” according to Ozel. “That means there are lots of sympathizers. You never know where there are sleeper cells that may actually decide to commit a violent act in a major city.”
Ankara is likely to drive a hard bargain with Washington before it actually engages in any military action against IS – action that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says will be done in Turkey’s interests and no one else’s.
New Post has been published on FSRN
New Post has been published on http://fsrn.org/2014/08/istanbul-neighborhood-known-for-anti-government-unrest-slated-for-demolition/
Istanbul neighborhood known for anti-government unrest slated for demolition
Local authorities in Istanbul have announced plans to demolish tens of thousands of homes in a neighborhood that is a hotbed of anti-government unrest. Authorities say the structures are unsafe. The area is home to many Alevis, a progressive Islamic sect whose followers traditionally support liberal and secular politics.
In a year of anti-government unrest in Turkey, all those killed by security forces were Alevis. That has contributed to a widening social divide between Alevis and orthodox Muslims, including many supporters of Turkey’s Islamist-rooted ruling party. And as Dorian Jones now reports, with the Prime Minister running in presidential elections this weekend, sectarian tensions are rising and threatening to reopen historical wounds.
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At a rally in Istanbul, Turkish Presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas slams his rival, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, over dividing their country along sectarian lines while pointing to the dangers of similar schisms in Iraq and Syria.
For 25-year-old Kenan, these grim warnings are all too real: “For us Alevi Muslims, the Prime Minster is a threat to all of us, he is threatening our country. He is no better than Hitler, he wants to destroy us.”
Alevi Muslims, like Kenan, follow a progressive form of Islam. They make up as much as a fifth of Turkey’s population. They’re strong backers of the secular state and traditionally support center-left parties. They are also generally wary of the conservative Islamic roots of the ruling AK Party. The dozen or so people killed by security forces in a year of anti-government protests were Alevis. Many AK party members and its supporters are orthodox Sunni Muslims.
Alevis don’t pray in mosques. Men and women worship through music and dance. Professor Istar Gozaydin of Istanbul Dogus University is an expert on religion and the State, she says the current political strife is stirring ancient tensions. “They are sort of heretics in the eyes Sunni Muslims,” Gozaydin explains. “The Alevis have been experiencing all sorts of atrocities, discriminations through the history both in Ottoman times and in Republican times as well. Unfortunately that is still continuing today, socially for example there are quite a many problems, the Alevis and Sunnis do not get married among themselves.”
Alevi suspicions of the government run particularly deep here, in the centuries-old Okmeydani district of Istanbul. The area is a renown place for Alevis, as well as a hotbed of anti government protests.
Walking around the streets, graffiti against the Prime Minister is everywhere, along with the names of those killed by security forces. Half a dozen have died in the last year, including a 15-year-old boy. Now the local authorities controlled by the ruling AK Party has declared the whole area unfit to withstand a major earthquake and decreed its demolition. It will be redeveloped, forcing thousands to leave their homes, with uncertain promises about when – or even if – they can return. “They aim for this place to change to get rid of people like us Alevis,” says Ahmet, an area fruit vendor. “They see us as threat, they cannot accept our existence, they hate us. Its simple we are Alevis and they are Sunnis.”
Tensions are rising fast ahead of the presidential elections this weekend. Prime Minister Erdogan is being accused of using divisive sectarian language while rallying his Sunni Muslim voting base. The country’s security force chiefs frequently interchange the words “Alevis” and “terrorists”. A leading government deputy even referred to Alevi places of worship-Cemvevis as terrorist centers.
In reaction, thousands of Alevis have been out on the streets of Istanbul, protesting against prejudice and police brutality. This teacher, who didn’t want to give her name, says she’s worried that the ruling AK party is stoking a religious polarization: “This government, they want us to live what they want. For Sunni Islam, the women want to use a headscarf, but for Alevis we don’t have to use scarf. And Sunnis go to mosques to prey we go to Cemevis Of course I feel frightened. Alevis massacred in this country, 50, 100, 200 people were killed. One year ago in Adiyaman, some people put crosses on the Alevi people’s doors, it means one day we will kill you, it can happen to us too, so I am afraid.”
Prime Minister Erdogan is widely predicted to comfortably win the presidency. Many people are bracing for life in an increasingly polarized society, divided along sectarian lines. Like the Okmeydani district of Istanbul, the Alevis of Turkey are facing an uncertain future.
New Post has been published on FSRN
New Post has been published on http://fsrn.org/2014/07/concern-about-isis-grows-in-turkeys-predominantly-kurdish-southeast/
Concern about ISIS grows in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast
The extreme Islamist group most commonly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, continues to gain traction across Iraq. The group uses tactics like crucifying its enemies that are too radical even for al Qaida – which disowned it.
In a letter this week to the UN, Iraqi officials reported that ISIS has seized about 90 pounds of uranium compounds. But the UNs nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, issued a statement calling any risk ”not significant.” As ISIS advances its violent bid to create an Islamic state that stretches between Syria and Iraq, carnage continues. Wednesday, 50 bodies were discovered south of Baghdad — all were shot, many were blindfolded, and some were children. It remains unclear when they died, and officials are working to identify the victims. Also Wednesday, in a public address Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki accused leaders in the northern autonomous Kurdish region of aiding ISIS. In neighboring Turkey, concern about ISIS’ rising power and questions about the ruling Islamic-rooted AK Party’s stance towards the group are growing. FSRN’S Dorian Jones reports that for many people who live in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey’s that borders Iraq and Syria, those worries are particularly strong.
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A recruiting video from the radical Islamic group ISIS calls Turks and Kurds to join the struggle in Iraq and Syria. It’s estimated that as many as 3000 of ISIS fighters come from Turkey.
In the video, a Turkish commander in a windswept desert calls on all Muslims to join the jihad and kill non-believers. The video has found fertile ground in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.
Diyarbakir is the main city in the region. Many Kurds are very religious, drawn from both the Sunni and Shia divide of the Islamic faith. Decades of economic underdevelopment along with years of conflict between Kurds fighting the Turkish state for greater rights, have created a rich recruiting ground for organizations like ISIS.
Already dozens of young Kurds fighting for ISIS have died in the fighting, according to Muammer Akar a city councilor in Diyarbakir and a prominent member of Turkey’s ruling AK Party. Akar says along with local factors, the region, like the rest of the Middle East, is paying the price for years of religious rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran.
“ISIS is attracting increasing numbers,” explains Akar. “It follows Sunni Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the region. The Saudis have spent so much money here developing a radical form of Sunni Islam to counter Iran’s influence. Over the years, these followers have become more and more radical and closer to violence, and many, many Kurdish youth were attracted. I know many youth who totally rejected their families, their sisters, because they don’t wear religious headscarves. And when their bodies come back from Syria, there are huge funerals which generate more anger and support for the group.”
Some of Turkey’s western allies have increasingly accused the ruling AK Party, which has its roots in Islam, of turning a blind eye to ISIS activities on its border, because of its opposition to the Syrian regime. But further complicating matters, ISIS is also fighting Syrian Kurds who have declared a secular autonomous state on Turkey’s border.
The Ankara-based government fears its own restive Kurdish population could make similar demands for autonomy and has accused the Syrian Kurdish leadership of being linked to the PKK – the group that has been fighting the Turkish state for minority rights for decades.
A couple of hours drive from Diyarbakir, the town of Cizre is nested on the Syrian and Iraqi borders. Kadir Konur is the deputy mayor of the pro Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party. He accuses the ruling party of going beyond just tacit support and actively financing ISIS.
“ISIS’s resources come from Turkey,” according to Konur. “We can say it clearly after the numerous incidents of trucks crossing from the borders carrying arms. A serious amount of ammunition was found and all these vehicles were registered under the name of the Turkish intelligence service.”
Those concerns appear to be shared by many Turkish Kurds, who are increasingly alarmed by ISIS’ military successes and the growing numbers of fellows Kurds killed by the group in neighboring Syria. This local shop keeper, Murat Demir explains.
“We are very very pessimistic because of ISIS, especially for ISIS,” laments Demir. “Everything is related, to politics here. Think of the massacres by Isis in Syrian Kurdistan killing women and children. It is very clear that they cross the border from Turkey into Syria. It is natural for us to have negative feelings towards AK Party for allowing this.”
Suspicions of the government’s involvement with ISIS have been heightened by an anonymously released video in which Turkish soldiers intercept two Turkish trucks weapons allegedly bound for Syria. The soldiers manhandle Turkish intelligence officers who are in cars escorting the trucks. According to prosecutors, the arms were being sent to radical Islamic groups fighting in Syria. The government claims the trucks were just carrying aid and strongly denied allegations of gun running, pointing out it has designated ISIS a terrorist group. But the prosecutors and soldiers investigating incident have now been charged with spying.
Akar of the ruling AK party says his own party may not be aware of the dangers Turkey is facing.
“Ankara cannot see all these developments in detail because they are dealing with so many other issues,” opines Akar. “But it’s only a matter of time, before this conflict comes to Turkey. Isis has already declared Turkey is a heretic country, and they will target here, and not only this region, but the big western cities will be a target as well.”
ISIS videos continue to appear on the net aimed at Turkish and Kurdish youth, calling them to join the jihad. The growing question here in the Kurdish southeast of the country is, if that war for an Islamic state comes to Turkey – what, if anything, will the Turkish government do to stop it.
(Photo credit: Dorian Jones)