Al-Qaeda in Turkey

Because, between the PKK, both in-country and in Northern Iraq, the constant headscarf issue, the debate over its European or Islamist future, and debates, both philosophical and legal, over its Islamic-governed present, the last thing Turkey needs is al-Qaeda activity in the country.   But there has been a lot of high-level chatter recently that such an event is in the near future of this ancient border of Europe and Asia.

Thomas Renard, writing for Jamestown, talks of a “parallel jihadi society” existing inside Turkey, information gleaned from several recent police raids.  Here is Renard:

Al-Qaeda is taking roots in Turkey, as indicated by recent police crackdowns and the discovery of a parallel jihadi society in Istanbul. In a two-day operation, Turkish police forces arrested 43 alleged members of al-Qaeda. On April 1, police forces launched four simultaneous raids in four different provinces‚ Istanbul, Hatay, Gaziantep and Konya. The operation resulted in the arrest of 35 individuals, including the leader of al-Qaeda in Turkey (Sabah, April 2). One day later, 300 security forces, including police forces and Special Forces, launched another raid which resulted in the arrest of 18 individuals. This latter cell had been under surveillance for eight months (Today's Zaman, April 2). Twenty-four suspects have been indicted by a Turkish court on charges of planning bombings and belonging to a terrorist organization (Southeast European Times, April 8).

 Stefan Nicola, in the Middle East Times, seconds this, but elaborates on the challenges in identifying sources of terrorism in Turkey.

“In Turkey, terrorism comes from several different currents,” Berndt Georg Thamm, a terrorism expert in Berlin, told United Press International in a telephone interview. “For one, we have the Kurdish terrorism of the PKK; then there are Islamist groups, like the Islamic Jihad Union, which originated among the Turkic people in Central Asia, but enjoy support inside Turkey; and thirdly, and this can't be denied — there is al-Qaida, which with small cells has gained a foothold in Turkey.”

I was a little surprised at first reading this expert talking about Central Asian ties, which are rarely brought up.  Because Turkey's ties with Central Asia over-lap with the binary East/West discussion, they are often ignored.  But the former Soviet states, with their Turkish populations and religious similarities, offered secular Turkey a chance to forge ties with these resource-rich nations (here's a good article on that).   But ties with Central Asia bring out unintended consequences, as well.  Perhaps Islamic terrorism, even with the IMU shattered, can filter its way from the Stans into Turkey proper.

But the question is always one of ties and intent?  It was well-known that the Islamist movements in the former Soviet states had ties to the Taliban- Ahmad Rashid documented this excellently.  Are these groups at all tied to a-Qaeda?  Can they make common cause with the PKK?  Or is this a little too conspiratorial? 

One could try to link these groups, draw elaborate ties- and there may be some (enemy of my enemy and all that).   But I think to do so would to fall into the same murky pattern we have held since that clear and violent September day- lumping all sorts of movements into the vague and nebulous miasma of “terrorism”.   Each country has its own histories and challenges which arise from them.  The general one-size-fits all approach this Administration has used regarding the varied Middle East has turned a bad situation into a walking disaster.   Turkey has to approach its growing problems with Turkish solutions.  It might not be possible- there are many conflicting interests in Turkey, possibly too many disparate threads to tie together- but to attempt to shoehorn them into a comfortable model for us would ensure disaster.