News Analysis: Turkey must boost intel capability, revise foreign policy: analysts

Turkey needs to boost its intelligence capabilities and improve cooperation with partners and allies to deal with serious terror challenges facing the nation, analysts agree in the face of recent deadly attack in the Turkish capital.

"It is clear that there have been serious gaps in the intelligence that failed to prevent back to back terror attacks in the nation's capital that is supposed to be the safest place," Bayram Kaya, Ankara-based security and intelligence analyst, told Xinhua.

Wednesday's car bombing attack claimed the lives of 28 people and injured many more in the downtown area where the government buildings, headquarters of the General Chief of Staff, offices of force commanders and Parliament are located.

The attack was the second major terrorist act in the capital in less than five months. In October, a suicide attack near the Ankara railway station killed 102 people in what was the deadliest terror attack in Turkish history.

"Such deadly attacks in high security areas of the capital requires organization capability, wide network, and months-long professional surveillance," Kaya said.

The government agreed. Turkish government spokesperson and Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus described Wednesday's attack as well-planned.

"I can tell you that the attack was done with a very good planning," he said in his televised speech on the night of the attack.

SYRIAN KURD IDENTIFIED AS SUSPECT

Less than 24 hours after the attack, the Turkish government announced that the identity of the suspect was uncovered and 14 people were detained as part of the sweeping operations across the country.

"Right now, the issue of who were the perpetrators behind this terror incident has been completely discovered," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters during his visit to the headquarters of the Chief of Staff.

The suspect was identified as 24-year-old Syrian of Kurdish origin named Salih Neccar from northern Syria.

Davutoglu said the attacker was a member of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), an armed faction of the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD), listed as terrorist group by Turkey.

He said Neccar executed the attack with cooperation of the outlawed Kurdih Workers Party (PKK), a group that resumed armed attacks against the Turkish security services since July last year when the peace process broke down.

However, Saleh Muslim, the leader of the PYD, denied that the suspect has anything to do with the YPG.

Cemil Bayik, senior PKK commander, said it could be an act of retaliation for what the government forces have been doing in Kurdistan.

The YPG, backed by Russia, the U.S. and the Syrian government, has been gaining territories in the north of Syria close to the Turkish border at the expense of the Turkey-backed rebels that aim to topple Bashar al-Assad regime.

Worried about possible emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region on Syrian borderline that may encourage own Kurds to seek for independence, Turkish military has been shelling the PYD positions since last weekend to hold advancing Kurdish militia.

Turkish air force also hit PKK targets in Iraq's northern area on Wednesday night, targeting a group of some 60-70 militants.

MISGUIDED FOREIGN POLICY BLAMED

Some analysts believe the surge in terror attacks may be the result of miscalculation in Turkish foreign policy and a spillover of the conflict from neighboring countries.

"People are worried and concerned that this is no reflection of what is happening in Syria," Hasan Kanbolat, the head of Ankara Policy Center, said.

"The fear is palpable and looks set to stay," he noted.

"The blast in Ankara appears to reflective of our faulty foreign policy," lamented Sedat Laciner, the president of the Social and Political Research Institute.

He said Turkey is not only isolated in its own region but is also loathed by many countries because of wrong choices made in its foreign policy.

Laciner emphasized that Turkey needs to increase the number of its friends abroad.

DEMORALIZED POLICE FORCE

The unprecedented reshuffle in the civil service, especially in the police force, in the last several years, may be partially to blame, some believe.

Ercan Tastekin, the head of the Ankara-based Research Center for Security Strategies, said the attack has exposed the vulnerabilities in Turkish security and intelligence agencies.

"Terror groups used to plan such major attacks before but they were foiled in advance because of the good intelligence work done by veteran police chiefs," he said.

The government's purge of senior officers in the police force since 2013 has left the force with a shortage of real experience, he said.

The fact that the suspect in Ankara attack entered into Turkey in 2014 according to police records suggests the security services knew him a long time ago.

Yet how he was able to penetrate into high security area without getting noticed begs further question, analysts say. Endit