Constant attacks in Turkey, ISIS claims responsibility

[Archie]

Hi,

Today, Islamic State militants suspected to be behind blast that has killed at least 30 left-wing activists at cultural centre in Suruç, near Kobani, in worst attack since 2013.

At least 30 people have died in an apparent suicide bombing in a Turkish town near the Syrian border in one of the most serious incidents yet of violence from the Syrian war spilling over into its northern neighbour. Local hospitals told Turkish media that 76 people were wounded in the bombing, several of them severely. The ministry said the death toll was expected to rise. “I saw more than 20 bodies,” one witness told. “It was a huge explosion, we all shook.”

The identity of the attacker has not yet been established, but Turkish media speculated that it may have been an 18-year old female suicide bomber for ISIS.


Why Turkey doesn't want to fight ISIS?

Turkey has recently (about 5-6 months ago) joined the coalition formed by US government to combat Islamic State, but our government is initially very reluctant to do so; something that doesn't make a lot of sense at first glance.

Turkey shares a border with Syria and Iraq. We, Turkish people, are clearly against ISIS' extremist actions and beliefs and we're friendly to US interests but our government is (obviously) not.

So why is our government reluctant to fight ISIS?

Well, Turkey has a long history with both Syria and Iraq; one that involves a lot of disrust and conflict. For example, ISIS expanded into Syria during the Syrian Civil War, which is being fought between rebel groups inside of Syria and the Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad. Some of those rebel groups were trained, funded and armed by Turkey, who wanted to overthrow Assad's government. Our government may have been reluctant to join in against ISIS, because eliminating them could potentially benefit Assad.

Turkish government may also have been reluctant, because of their financial relationship with ISIS. It's estimated that ISIS is smuggling $15 million dollars worth of oil every month through Turkey. Some reports indicate that ISIS and the people they're working with (our government) in Turkey, aren't really even trying to hide their activities. They may be building pipelines in broad daylight.

The implication is that, Turkish government could stop ISIS but isn't - obviously for financial gains. Turkish government should be overthrown immediately, I think.


In my opinion, terrorism has no religion, no country, no race. I condemn the attacks of ISIS, Al Qaeda and all terror groups in the world. They must be stopped and dismantled immediately, enough is enough. Why terrorism when everyone can live in peace...

[Gandalf]

The Turkish government also has a long standing conflict with the Kurds. The government might secretly not be unhappy about the attacks, as they do not (yet) are targeted at the Turkish ethnic group.

The problem is that the terrorist of one is a freedom fighter to others. Those attacked now were once called terrorists due to fighting for a separate country. Those who resisted the Nazi government in WW2 were called terrorists.
While I believe IS should be taken apart as they are a disgrace to what they call their religion,their emergence show that no government in the region is capable of leading in a way as Western states are led. That is not a failure of the people, but a failure of the system.

[Archie]

Well, the way I see it, the establishment of a dependent yet self-governing Kurdish state would bring some stability. They're the ones leading the fight against ISIS right now and Turkey regards ISIS as an ally because we are sworn enemies of Kurds which I think is normal (PKK has been trying to divide Turkey since like 1982).

But!

So really and truelly, to continue fighting, whilst there is a great devil (the devil being ISIS) on your border, is a shame. We should stop the current conflict we have against Kurds and focus on dismantling ISIS (then maybe we can resolve the problem going on with Kurds when/if ISIS ever gets destroyed).

But the existence of Kurds gives the USA a reason to keep Turkey scared and force it into NATO. Where was NATO when the PKK was attacking Turkey? They of course called it a "domestic" issue.

[Que]

Because of some reasons (read: money), the big countries do not give a shit about the war on ISIS. If this would be important to them, there would be no ISIS left.
I feel ashamed that Sweden is one of the countries with most travelers to ISIS and their sick ideology.

[Gandalf]

Well, the way I see it, the establishment of a dependent yet self-governing Kurdish state would bring some stability. They're the ones leading the fight against ISIS right now and Turkey regards ISIS as an ally because we are sworn enemies of Kurds which I think is normal (PKK has been trying to divide Turkey since like 1982).

But!

So really and truelly, to continue fighting, whilst there is a great devil (the devil being ISIS) on your border, is a shame. We should stop the current conflict we have against Kurds and focus on dismantling ISIS (then maybe we can resolve the problem going on with Kurds when/if ISIS ever gets destroyed).

But the existence of Kurds gives the USA a reason to keep Turkey scared and force it into NATO. Where was NATO when the PKK was attacking Turkey? They of course called it a "domestic" issue.

A lot of oil reserves are in the region that the Kurds live in, which is why Turkey does not want to give up the territory. Political instasbility in the region also means that the reserves can not be developed properly which is an advantage to any country involved in producing oil and wanting to keep the price up.
With IS playing the role of the big feared opponent, USA can create a new peace with Russia, though they might want to keep them on reserve in case IS fades out.

[AK47]

Because of some reasons (read: money), the big countries do not give a shit about the war on ISIS. If this would be important to them, there would be no ISIS left.
I feel ashamed that Sweden is one of the countries with most travelers to ISIS and their sick ideology.

they should do like the uk is voting on, parents will be able to block their kids passports so they can't fly down to ISIS and join them

[Exterminator]

Because of some reasons (read: money), the big countries do not give a shit about the war on ISIS. If this would be important to them, there would be no ISIS left.
I feel ashamed that Sweden is one of the countries with most travelers to ISIS and their sick ideology.

The U.S went all out on Al Quaeda, went into several hundred trillion dollars debt, and by the time they withdrew Al Qaeda was much bigger than when they started.

Also, you're forgetting one thing. These countries may be sending people to fight for ISIS but these numbers are very low compared to ISIS's strength as of now. The only real risk they pose is the fact that doctors and engineers are also defecting to ISIS.
However, this is primetime for spies. In general, it's very very hard to send a spy down to ISIS. First, you needed someone that was of arabic origins and blended in. Generally there weren't that many people in the country that could fit that description, let alone willing to work for a Secret agency to go spy on ISIS. Their best bet then was to recruit people already in the region, something that was not only difficult but ran the risk of double agents ,incompetence and the most common, simple defection.

But with this giant immigration, spies can easily blend in with the rest. Fake backgrounds can be spun up and they can be trained into Urdu and Islam within years (India's RAW has been doing that successfully for many years. One of it's agents ended up being professor of Urdu in Pakistan's biggest university, and later a Lt. in the pakistani army[Sadly he was captured after about 30 years of service, and declared a martyr in India]).

With this, highly trained spies with a high degree of trust can go into the heart of ISIS, and if they're having medical or engineering qualifications they can very easily climb the ranks aswell due to the dire lack of professionals within. They can then supply gigantic volumes of intel which would help in the fight against ISIS.

So, a few people going to ISIS to raise their member count by about 0.5% isn't really that bad when you can blend enough spies into that to monitor practically all of their activities. If anything, i suspect that these states may have initially motivated such migrations so that they could start sending a buttload of spies in.