{"id":379,"date":"2014-01-15T02:14:16","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T02:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/?p=379"},"modified":"2014-01-15T02:14:16","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T02:14:16","slug":"turkeys-internal-strife-is-endangering-external-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/turkeys-internal-strife-is-endangering-external-security\/","title":{"rendered":"TURKEY\u2019S INTERNAL STRIFE IS ENDANGERING EXTERNAL SECURITY"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the vicious struggle for domination between Turkey\u2019s Justice and Development Party government and its one-time ally Fethullah Gulen camp intensifies, the \u00a0serious consequences for the national security of this enmity is becoming clear to everyone, except the two squabbling sides.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent days, the deep mistrust between Turkish state institutions turned into a publicly fought battle for supremacy over the security forces and the judiciary.<\/p>\n

The fall-out for the border security has become obvious on the 3rd<\/sup> of January, when the police stopped a vehicle suspected of carrying weapons and ammunitions to Syria. The intelligence officers with the backing of the government then prevented the search. The load, claimed to be blankets on their way to Syrian Turkmen civilians, was later declared a state secret, with the new Interior minister telling everyone to mind their own business.<\/p>\n

On 14th<\/sup> of January, again in the Syrian border area, the Turkish anti-terrorist police raided the Kilis offices of the Islamist aid agency of the Mavi Marmara -fame, the IHH, looking for individuals suspected of links to al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n

Within hours, the head of the anti-terrorism unit in Kilis was removed from office by the government-appointed governor.<\/p>\n

As both sides exchanged strong accusations of treachery and lawless behavior, a government deputy, \u015eamil Tayyar chipped in with the extra-ordinary Twitter claim that Israel had sent an operation team that took off from the Turkish city of Van in order to raid the IHH offices in Kilis.<\/p>\n

An astute observer responding \u00a0on Twitter asked him what his government was doing while Israelis were raiding.<\/p>\n

If it wasn\u2019t so serious, one could joke about it.<\/p>\n

What has been happening in Turkey right now is mind-boggling. In their mutual effort to reveal each other\u2019s corrupt and illegal actions, both the government and the Gulen supporters are digging a hole for themselves while shaking the earth the country stands on.<\/p>\n

The prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan continues to blame \u201coutside forces\u201d for undermining Turkey.<\/p>\n

His own ministers and some members of his party are doing a much better job to ridicule Turkey than any hostile outside power or the malicious world media could ever manage to do.<\/p>\n

All of this is happening when the situation on the ground in Syria, especially close to the Turkish border areas is getting worse.\u00a0 The threat to regional and international security is growing to unprecedented levels.<\/p>\n

The Geneva II peace negotiations beginning in Montreux on 22nd January have concentrated the world\u2019s minds on the appalling situation in Syria with the death toll of already\u00a0 over 125,000 people.<\/p>\n

It is no surprise that the world attention has also turned to what goes on in Turkey.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of the year, the fighting among Syrian opposition groups across northern Syria have become intensified.<\/p>\n

Al-Qaeda linked jihadist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS has swept across northern Syria.<\/p>\n

Turkey\u2019s covert manipulation of another jihadist group, Jabhat el Nusra against the Syrian Kurdish forces is also well documented.<\/p>\n

But in recent weeks, there have been more and more articles appearing in the western media, accusing Turkey of playing a role in the ISIS\u2019 growth by allowing foreign fighters to cross its border into Syria.<\/p>\n

Unlike many Turkish media commentators, these articles are written by prominent journalists visiting the region, investigating various claims for themselves. \u00a0\u00a0Sarah Birke\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/blogs\/nyrblog\/2013\/dec\/27\/how-al-qaeda-changed-syrian-war\/?insrc=wbll<\/a> How al-Qaed\u00a0 Changed Syrian-war?<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0is a good recent example.<\/p>\n

Washington-based journalist Mutlu \u00c7iviro\u011flu also wrote this week about the battle going on between Syrian Kurds and the extremist groups and the need to involve Syrian Kurds in the Geneva-II talks<\/p>\n

http:\/\/globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com\/2014\/01\/13\/time-for-u-s-to-embrace-syrias-kurds\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Turkey denies any covert links or support to Syrian fighters and claims that it provides \u00a0purely a humanitarian backing.<\/p>\n

When Turkey\u2019s own police force raids one of the country\u2019s leading players in the aid effort with suspicion of helping al-Qaeda and when the government immediately puts a stop to \u00a0it , these\u00a0 flat denials become harder to\u00a0 take seriously.<\/p>\n

Who can credibly argue that the claims of Turkey being turned into a staging post for foreign fighters or the plane from Istanbul is now known as the jihadi express are all lies, damn lies?<\/p>\n

Perhaps, we should ask the ruling party\u2019s Israel -expert deputy Samil Tayyar to enlighten us on that one, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the vicious struggle for domination between Turkey\u2019s Justice and Development Party government and its one-time ally Fethullah Gulen camp intensifies, the \u00a0serious consequences for the national security of this enmity is becoming clear to everyone, except the two squabbling sides. In recent days, the deep mistrust between Turkish state institutions turned into a publicly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}