New year opens just like the old one - with terror

If 2016 was a dramatic year in terms of terrorist attacks across the globe, 2017 has not started in any more promising way Turkey becomes the target once again only a few weeks after the Besiktas football stadium blasts.

A fighter of the Islamic State decided to celebrate the arrival of 2017 by killing 39 people and injuring 65, all of them enjoying themselves in Istanbul's famous night club "Reina." Although more time is needed for an investigation, some important preliminary observations can be made.

To start with, it is clear that a really determined terrorist cannot be easily stopped in spite of security measures and early warning systems. Even if terrorists fail to attack their top targets, they compromise with less complicated ones.

The recent Istanbul atrocity does not constitute an original idea implemented by an Islamic State murderer. It is rather similar to that of the Bataclan Theatre slaughter in Paris just over a year ago.

On the night of November 13, 2015, three heavily armed men - members of the same terrorist organization - killed 90 people by shooting at a crowd during a rock concert. This shows how hard it is for the authorities of a country to avert an attack in an ordinary place where innocent citizens are spending their leisure time without almost completely shutting down normal daily life.

Moreover, terrorism has no boundaries in this modern era of globalization. In the Reina massacre, a number of victims were foreign citizens - seven Saudi Arabians, three Lebanese, two Tunisians, two Indians, two Moroccans, two Jordanians, two Iraqis, one Kuwaiti, one Canadian, one Israeli, one Syrian and one Russian national so far identified.

So, although Turkey has certainly been hit as a country, the pain goes beyond its border and - in this case - is largely expanding into the wider Middle East region where numerous Sunni Muslims are based. Additionally, the Islamic State is able to attract new supporters by successfully using social media, while its fighters can travel from one country to the other in order to receive the required theoretical and practical training before striking.

This said, the perspectives for the future are rather grim. This is not related to the symbolism of the terrorist attack on the first night of the new year in Istanbul. It is principally connected to the successful impact of the Islamic State's nature on its believers.

The terrorist organization employs an unprecedented "bottom-up" approach and mobilizes ordinary members to independently serve its bloodthirsty cause. This contradicts the modus-operandi of previous terror groups such as al Qaeda where perpetrators only executed the orders of leaders without taking the initiative themselves.

From another perspective, relations between Turkey and the Islamic State have to be carefully examined. In 2016, the former was the major target of the terrorist organization other than for Iraq and Syria where the bases of the modern caliphate are located.

It had not been largely targeted by Islamic State from the very first beginning. Instead, it was added to the murder black list from the summer of 2015 onwards. Before that summer, the relationship between the two sides had not been too hostile despite the kidnapping of Turkish diplomats in June 2014 in Mosul.

Specifically, President Tayyip Erdogan is accused by his international partners - including the U.S. administration - of supporting the Islamic State in his efforts to remove Bashar al Assad from power in Syria.

This support mainly included the uncontrolled shipment of arms to the Syrian opposition as well as the illegal buying of oil by Islamic State smugglers. Due to heavy American pressure, the terms of the EU-Turkey agreement on the refugee crisis and the advancement of Russian forces in Syria, Erdogan reconsidered his initial approach and started to combat the Islamic State.

Subsequently, some analysts attribute the current chaos in Turkey to what they see as Erdogan's ambivalent policies vis-à-vis the Islamic State. Even if some germs of truth exist here, this argument cannot successfully provide an answer to the problem of terrorism. In the final account, it is not only Turkey but many other countries - including the U.S., Belgium, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Yemen - that suffer from the Islamic State.

There is no question that the recent killing in "Reina" night club outlines the dangerous extent of Turkey's internal crisis. An editorial in the Hurriyet newspaper discusses developments seeing "Turkey's slide into the category of third world countries." As long as internal divisions are growing, tensions between Islamists and secularists are deepening.

The best remedy for Erdogan is perhaps to inspire national solidarity notwithstanding the current troubles in the country and the Islamic nature of his Justice and Development Party. He also needs to abandon his past beliefs and harmoniously cooperate with his country's partners - such as China - to step up effort in locating and removing the fighters of the Islamic State.

George N. Tzogopoulos is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

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

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.