News Analysis: Why was Turkey hit again by terrorist attacks?

Turkey's largest city Istanbul was rocked Saturday night by twin bombings, killing at least 44 people, including 30 police personnel, and injuring some 155 others.

Turkey has now come under 10 major deadly attacks this year, in which at least 270 people were killed. The attacks were mostly blamed on the Islamic State (IS) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Pundits believed that such frequent terrorist attacks were closely linked to the regional situation and Turkish domestic policy.

ROOT CAUSES

During the past years, the Middle East region has been engulfed in turmoil, war and terrorist activities.

Countries like Libya, Syria and Iraq have been dragged into war after Western powers intervened for their own interests. Thousands of refugees had to flee their homeland to Europe, resulting in the largest refugee crisis on the continent since World War II.

Turkey overvalued its strength and tried to dominate the regional circumstances as they developed, which sowed the seeds of rampant terrorist activities.

Turkish retired diplomat Faruk Logoglu said the country's policy based on religious sects not only harms its ties with Europe and the United States, but also leads to a deterioration of its relationship with neighboring countries, like Syria and Iraq.

Moreover, some of the Turkish government's moves have invited terrorist retaliation, such as renewed fighting with the PKK after last year's election, which tore up the peace process that has lasted for two years, and opening an airbase to the United States and European countries for striking IS targets in Syria.

INFLUENCE ON TURKEY, REGION

Yusuf Kanli, a columnist for the Hurriyet daily, pointed out that the current situation will be used by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as an excuse to promote the transition from the current parliamentarism to a super-presidency, in the name of better governance, a higher level of security and effectiveness in justice. Naturally, a security-thirsty nation will succumb to the push for "secure governance."

However, some analysts said imposing presidentialism by force will inevitably increase the already serious social divergence and antagonism.

Murat Yetkin, another columnist with the newspaper, said "new acts of terror are likely to create new fault lines in society, that will jeopardize not only security and democracy in Turkey, but also security in Europe."

The emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria, if not an independent state, is a nightmare scenario for Turkey as it fears the formation of such an entity would whet the appetite of its own Kurds.

To prevent such things from happening, the country launched a military action coded Operation Euphrates Shield in August, and dispatched a special force of 300 soldiers to northern Syria.

Pundits predicted rising risks of confrontation between the Turkish military and Syrian forces as well as Russia and Iran behind the scenes.

Moreover, some did not rule out a possible dispatch of troops to Iraq. If the PKK sets up a base there, Turkey will face more terrorist threats.

The Turkish Armed Forces began deploying tanks and armored vehicles near the town of Silopi in Sirnak province on the Iraqi border on Nov. 1.

Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik has described the deployment of tanks on the border as a preparation in view of the important developments in the region, warning "Turkey has redlines. If those redlines are violated, Turkey will do what it must do." Endi