Recent Wave of Terrorism in Turkey

When President Putin of Russia warned Turkey, that they will " more than once" regret, shooting down the Russian war plane, perhaps he was hinting at the tirade of deadly terrorist attacks currently going on in Turkey. Turkey is apparently being targeted by ISIS, the terrorist group and simultaneously by Kurd rebels who are ironically enemies of each other. Now ISIS is a common enemy of Russia and Turkey who are newly found enemies themselves after the Turks unwisely decided to shoot down the Russian jet. However, Kurd rebels are open to all support they can get against the Turkish state especially after Turk President Recep Tayyip Erdogan banished all kinds of dialogue for conflict resolution with the Kurd populations demand for further autonomy.

The Islamist government of Turkey bears a striking resemblance to the Islamic ideological regimes of President Zia in Pakistan and Khomeini of Iran. These regimes displayed strict fundamentalist governance practices, curbing freedom of speech and punishing any difference of opinion. Their adherence to respective Islamic ideological beliefs alienated the moderates in both countries and brought upon them decades of militancy leading to terrorism. We can continuously discuss both Pakistan and Iran's case but let's bring to focus the current Islamist regime in Turkey, led by Erdogan. It is clearly evident that Erdogan is alienating even the moderate Turk Kurdish population by branding them as terrorists for opposing his government's harsh anti-terror policy directed  in essence at the Kurd population. Turkey has so far indicted three prominent academics for speaking up against the government's anti-terror policy. The Turkish government is also reluctant to talk to the Kurds due to the fact that the USA supports the Syrian Kurds, who recently declared independence of three Syrian districts under their control. President Erdogan doesn't seem to want to send the USA the wrong signal, that they agree and accept the US support for the Syrian Kurds by liaising with the Turkish Kurds. In all this complex set of geopolitics;  the uncompromising fundamentalist attitudes of  the Turkish state are not helping Turkey in the slightest.

In the present moment both the US and the EU desperately want Turkish cooperation in which the US utilizes Turkish military bases for their Syrian campaign and the EU put in place a deal to pay 6 billion US dollars to Turkey for stopping the unstoppable flow of Syrian migrants to Europe. Turkey would not be under any pressure from the champions of "human rights" for her out lash against their Kurd population or anyone criticizing the state's strict policies in this regard. However, keeping in line with the same practices of  hard line Islamist regimes of the past like that of President Zia in Pakistan, one can easily conclude the outcome in the longer run for Turkey. Turkey will pay the price in human lives and loss of tourism affecting the economy for taking on Russia. In the process, by alienating the moderate forces, the Turkish government is paving the way for the rise of fundamentalist forces which will ultimately breed militancy and a culture of intolerance and hate.

Until and unless the Turkish people force their leadership to take a recourse in addressing the core security policies of the Turkish government, we are looking at further chaos and economic hardships for Turkey. In the long run, if the trend started by the Turkish state continues, it would endanger the very fabric of Turkish culture formulated by Kemal Ataturk. It is advisable for Turkey to tread carefully in this situation. The country is an up and rising star in the Muslim world and any Muslim with enlightened religious orientation has many hopes for them and wishes them well.