Terror Blasts
In Istanbul:
Atrocities Aid Bushs
War On Terror
By Justus Leicht
and Peter Schwarz
World
Socialist Web
21 November
2003
On
Thursday, the Turkish capital of Istanbul with its 12 million inhabitants
was rocked by violent explosions for the second time within the space
of a few days.
Bombs exploded in
front of the British consulate in the Istanbul district of Beyoglu and
before a branch of the major Anglo-Asian bank HSBC, situated in the
Levent district of the city. Initial reports speak of 27 dead and over
450 injured. The casualty figures will very likely increase. Amongst
the dead is the British Consul General in Istanbul, Roger Short.
Witnesses spoke
of a bloodbath. An employee of the German Goethe Institute, which has
its offices just 100 metres from the British consulate, spoke to Spiegel-Online
of people covered in blood on the streets. A delivery van
drove into the British consulate, and there followed a violent
explosion. The bomb set off in front of the HSBC bank shook a
nearby shopping centre that was packed with thousands of ordinary citizens,
both Turks and tourists.
Two similar attacks
were carried out last Saturday morning against the synagogues of Beth
Israel and Neve Schalom. The latter is the largest synagogue in Istanbul.
It is situated on a busy street that was filled with observers on the
Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest.
The two bomb blasts
took 24 lives. Most of those killed were Muslims, who were employed
as security personnel in nearby mosques or worked in nearby shops. Over
300 were wounded in the explosions.
Turkish authorities
and representatives of the Israeli, British and American governments
immediately assigned responsibility for both series of bombings to Al
Qaeda. On Thursday, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw made a press
statement blaming Al Qaeda for that days blasts before the dust
had even settled on the sites of the explosions.
Later, an anonymous
person called the Turkish news agency Anadolu to claim that Al Qaeda
and the Turkish Islamist group IBDA-C (Warriors Front for an Islamic
Great Middle East) were responsible for the bombings. The caller said
the attacks on Thursday were the result of a joint action
by the two groups. The group IBDA-C also claimed responsibility for
the earlier synagogue attacks.
Some time later
on Thursday, an Arabic newspaper received an email in which a group
affiliated with Al Qaeda named The Martyrs Brigade of Abu Hafs
el Masri also claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Turkish authorities
assert that on the basis of genetic tests they have been able to definitively
establish the identity of the two suicide bombers from last Saturday.
They are alleged to be two Turkish men from the eastern city of Bingöl
who have links to radical Islamist groups. The television channel NTV
claims that one of the men had travelled to Iran on six occasions to
receive training as an explosives expert.
However, the reports
that have been issued up to now are full of contradictions. The Turkish
interior minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, said that claims of responsibility
by IBDA-C were not credible. He said no Turkish organisation was in
a position to carry out attacks of such a magnitude.
This raises the
question, however, how it was possible for foreigners to smuggle such
large amounts of explosive into Turkey, and then situate and explode
the bombs almost simultaneously at two different locations.
Some security experts
have expressed doubts regarding the participation of Al Qaeda. The Turkish
Daily News quoted the Israeli anti-terror expert Boaz Ganor, who said,
At this time (there is) no indication of Al Qaeda involvement.
Mustafa Alani from
Londons Royal United Services Institute told Reuters: There
is no history of Al Qaeda operating in Turkey. Its very hard to
say Al Qaeda is involved in this attack. I think the activities of Al
Qaeda now are concentrated on two statesSaudi Arabia and Iraq.
It remains unclear
who is really responsible for the terror attacks in Istanbul. On the
other hand, it is very clear that the attacks come at a highly opportune
moment for both the American and British governments, as well as sections
of the Turkish military.
Against a background
of growing resistance to the occupation of Iraq, British Prime Minister
Tony Blair and US President George Bush used the bloodbath in Istanbul
to justify the terror they are carrying out against the Iraqi people.
At a joint press conference on Thursday held only a few hours after
the attack on the British consulate, President Bush vowed to finish
the job we have begun, and Blair stated: I can assure you
of one thing: that when something like this happens today, our response
is not to flinch or give way or concede one inch. We stand absolutely
firm until this job is done, done in Iraq, done elsewhere in the world.
Turkish military uses attacks
The Turkish military
are using the wave of terror to reassert their influence over the government.
Immediately after the latest attack, soldiers appeared on the streets
of Istanbul, blocking a motorway and providing security alongside Turkish
police. A dozen soldiers in helmets, wearing camouflage gear and armed
with machine guns, were seen in the proximity of the explosion at the
HSBC building.
The military have
regarded the government of the moderate Islamist AKP (Justice and Development
Party) with mistrust since its overwhelming election victory. Since
then, there have repeated rumours of a possible military putsch.
Tensions between
the government and the military have grown considerably since the beginning
of the Iraq war. The military campaigned vigorously for participation
in the war, but in an initial parliamentary vote the majority of AKP
deputies refused to allow the US to use Turkish territory as a second
front in its war against Iraq. After the vote, and during a visit to
Ankara, US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz encouraged the Turkish
military to take a stronger leadership role in relation
to the elected government.
The IBDA-C, which
has reportedly admitted responsibility for the attacks, is playing a
very dubious role. The origins of the group go back to the 1970s. The
group brought together Islamists with former Maoists and was characterised
by extreme anti-Semitism and hostility to Christians. Significantly,
however, the group displayed no sympathy for Iraq in its publications.
The group gained
notoriety in the 1990s with a series of bombing attacks. In 1994 alone
the group is alleged to have carried out 90 attacks. These were aimed
principally against critical intellectuals and religious minorities
rather than against the police, army or western targets.
Among its victims,
the IBDA-C was said to have been responsible in 1993 for the murder
of the reporter Ugur Mumcu, who had written articles on the Kurdish
Workers Party (PKK), the growth of Islamic radicalism and drug rings.
In 1994, the group was involved in the murder of the renowned film critic
and writer Onat Kutlar. Other victims included members of the Jewish
community.
There is much to
indicate that the activities of the IBDA-C are manipulated by provocateurs
from the Turkish intelligence forces. After the military putsch of 1980,
the generals of the so-called Turkish-Islamic Synthesis
called for an ideological amalgam of Islam and right-wing nationalism,
aimed at bringing together fundamentalists and nationalists in a block
against left-wing tendencies and Kurdish nationalist forces. Against
this background, Islamist organisations were able to grow and flourish.
Parliamentary investigations have since provided evidence of close collaboration
between the Islamic Hezbollah and police special forces.
When it became clear
in 1994 that Islam could develop into a potential political threat to
the state, the security forces intensified repressive measures against
Islamic organisations. By the time of the capitulation of the PKK to
the Turkish state in 1999, these groups had been largely destroyed,
with their leaders arrested or killed. Since then, no more attacks have
been ascribed to these organisations.
In light of this
situation, it is unlikely that the IBDA-C would be able on its own to
assemble the resources and manage the logistics necessary to carry out
the two series of terror attacks in Istanbul. Even if members of this
group were involved in the bombings, there could well have been others
pulling the strings while remaining in the background.
As for the political
beneficiaries of the bombings, virtually all of the commentaries in
the Turkish press agree that the result of the attacks will be even
closer collaboration between Turkey and the US and Israel. Turkey was
already the only country in the region with a majority Muslim population
to share close diplomatic and military links with Washington and Tel
Aviv.
The commentary in
the newspaper Turkiye is typical. It reads: The message to Turkey
and the world is as follows: If you continue to cooperate with
the US, you will suffer such misfortunes. You should adopt a clear stance
against Israel and cease being interested in Iraq. If this is
really the message, in Turkey it will actually have the opposite effect.
As we cant make concessions to terrorism, we can only align our
policy with Washingtons that much more closely. In addition, this
anti-Semitic attacksomething unfamiliar and alien to Turkeywill
cause a greater rapprochement with Israel.
Hurriyet commented
in similar fashion: Thus, this terrorist action might include
a warning for Turkey not to act alongside the US. However, these attacks
might cause an opposite effect, because they could move Turkey further
into the same axis as the US and Israel. Turkey will consider itself
in the same boat as the US, which sees terrorism as its chief threat.
The series of terror
attacks in Istanbul are a reactionary provocation. It remains unclear
who is really behind them, but even if there is no direct involvement
by the Turkish secret service or Western intelligence services, in the
final analysis, it is the policies of the US, Israel and Great Britain
that are responsible for this catastrophe.
The military conquest
and subordination of Iraq, together with the suppression of the Palestinians
by the Israeli regime, have unleashed new ethnic tensions and encouraged
reactionary forces across the globe. What the Bush and Sharon governments
cynically refer to as the war against terror has led to
an escalation of terror attacks throughout the Middle East.
This also affects
members of the Jewish faith. Despite the fact that the majority of the
Turkish population is Muslim, the country has never been regarded as
anti-Semitic. Since the times of Sultan Beyazit II, who in 1492 accepted
more than 100,000 Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, the Jewish community
has been able to live unhindered in the country. Jews fleeing pogroms
in Eastern Europe and the Nazi terror were also able to take up residence
in the country. Now the community has been plunged into insecurity and
fear as a consequence of the Iraq war.