New Year eve disaster in Turkey

A terrible attack in Istanbul soaked many club-goers in blood. It is hard to measure the hatred needed to kill so many people without any direct assignable fault. All those innocent men and women had gathered to farewell the outgoing year and embrace a hopefully brighter future. Instead, 39 of them were killed to become a part of a tragic history.

Terrorism was the burning issue of 2016 and it seems it will remain so in 2017 while we're still trying to calculate the exact impact of past militancy. We can only establish how many were killed and maimed or how many billions of dollars have been lost on fighting terrorism. Unfortunately, there is no science to calculate for us the exact cost of mental agony and psychological trauma.

Turkey was symbol of a modern Muslim nation achieving fantastic material progress by adhering to its roots. But things have gone awry and there seems to be no quick fix in sight.

The attack on a club in Istanbul is not the first horrific incident in the country; in fact, it was the second major attack in less than a month after two bombs, for which Kurdish militant claimed responsibility, exploded outside a football stadium on December 10, killing 44 people. In the latest attack, the terrorist machine succeeded to target a New Year party despite warnings by the intelligence agencies of various countries.

It was a bad year for Turkey. In addition to several terrorist attacks, it also suffered a failed coup in which about 250 people were killed. The confrontation between a faction of armed forces and civilian government shook the nation. It is still trying to recover from the shock and the purges the coup bid produced. The repeated terrorist attacks have intensified the internal conflicts that will continue to haunt Turkey.

Ankara faces a dual threat by militants linked with the Islamic State and Kurdish separatists. The Kurds have proved their resilience in the past by surviving attacks and imprisonments. Their dream of a pure Kurdish state is hard to attain, but they have remained undeterred and continue to fight on several fronts.

The Islamic State has suffered serious reversals, but its threat is far from over. Being a strong militant group with resources and vast areas under control, the group has the lethal ability to fight pitched battles as well as launch internecine terrorist strikes against its opponents. Even if its military might is decimated, it will maintain a terrorist capability for a longer period.

Turkey needs a calibrated response to the challenge. The reliance on just military power is not going to pay the desired dividends. It is very difficult to completely neutralize the terroristic powers of group as it needs just a couple of motivated individuals and some explosives or just a gun to wreak havoc, as has been proved time and again.

A considerable effort should be undertaken to deprive the militants of regular supply of men and materials. The second prong of the strategy should be muzzling their propaganda. Social media has become a handy tool to spread the message and gain support. A counter-narrative should be developed to counter the motivated people from exploiting Islam for aggressive purposes.

Finally, the political part of the strategy should be to establish a secure and peaceful border. It is good that the political leadership in Turkey is pushing for political settlement in Syria, which has become a source of disturbance for the entire region. Turkey cannot go it alone, without peace and stability in neighboring Syria.

One last word about "good and bad terrorists." There is hardly a scope for a skewed logic that there can be a "good" terrorist. The shaky notion that those creating mayhem in the backyards of an enemy are good, has failed many times. A terrorist is good as long as you are good to him. It may not take long to turn the gun at the benefactor if the survival of a militant group is at stake.

Let the Istanbul shooting be the last, but that seems unlikely. Turkey needs to go a long way before it can retrieve the ground lost to the rebel herds.

Sajjad Malik is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/SajjadMalik.htm

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