Tragedy in Ankara. Who blows up Turkey?
10 October 2015 was another terrorist act in the capital of Turkey, Ankara. Unfortunately, over the past year, residents of Turkey have become accustomed to living in an atmosphere of terrorist acts and sabotage. The reason for this is the policy of the current Turkish government in relation to the Syrian events. Turkey is the northern neighbor of Syria and, quite naturally, from the first days of the armed confrontation in this Arab country, Turkish society was willy-nilly embroiled in a conflict. The terrorist attacks in Turkey are echoes of the general political instability in the region, but the war in Syria is only one of its components. In Turkey itself is also restless.
Despite the fact that during the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish nationalists managed to squeeze virtually all Christians out of the country - Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, hundreds of thousands of whom were victims of war crimes, and failed to achieve the internal unity of the Turkish nation. Disengagement is still taking place on an ethnic and confessional plane - not only between Turks and Kurds, which remain the country's largest national minority, but also between Sunni Muslims and followers of “heretical” from the point of view of Sunni religions close to Shiism (above all, we are talking about Alevis which should not be confused with the Syrian Alawite). It is the ethno-confessional division of Turkish society that underlies political contradictions. Conservative Sunnis tend to support right-wing nationalist and religious-fundamentalist parties, Alevis and Kurds traditionally support the left-wing spectrum of Turkish politics, up to and including cooperation with ultra-left Maoist and Stalinist organizations. The events in Syria exacerbated the already complex political situation in Turkey, leading to the intensification of hostilities by Turkish government forces against the Kurds in the south-east of the country, to the commission of a number of terrorist acts, the largest of which were the bombings in Ankara. .
On the morning of October 10 under the overpass near the Ankara railway station two explosions thundered, the victims of which were 97 dead and 246 injured people. The Turkish government declared a three-day mourning in the country. Law enforcement agencies and special services are looking for potential terrorists, and the public, meanwhile, is discussing what happened, trying to figure out who can stand behind the explosions that thundered at the station. On the day of the bombings, thousands of people gathered on the peace march under anti-war slogans. The march “Labor, Peace, Democracy” was organized by trade union organizations and left-wing political parties in Turkey, including the People’s Democratic Party, which is known for its pro-Kurdish positions, as well as a number of other left-wing and left-wing radical organizations. After the explosions thundered, panic began. To calm the crowd, the police were forced to use tear gas and shoot into the air, but these actions only further aroused people. There were clashes with the police. Despite the fact that no one took responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Ankara, the Turkish government announced the main suspects. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the main suspect in the terrorist attacks is the "Islamic State". The newspaper Haberturk drew attention to the fact that the type of explosive device and the choice of location of the explosion testify in favor of the terrorist act being carried out by militants of the Islamic State, which has strong positions in southeastern Turkey - near the Syrian border. Recall that the “Islamic state” fighting in Syria enjoys considerable support from the Turkish radical fundamentalists, and the left forces of Turkey accuse the government of the actual complicity to terrorists, since fighting with the Kurds, who are among the active opponents of the Islamic State in Syria, Turkey, in fact , stands on the side of the "Islamic state". Meanwhile, in Turkey itself, the security services and the police are more likely to fight with the "Islamic State", exposing to the persecution of quite numerous Turkish religious radicals.
Religious Extremists - Version One
The spread of “radical Islam” in Turkey is a consequence of the political upheavals that the country has been facing in recent decades. Despite the fact that in the first half of the twentieth century. the ruling circles of Turkey, starting with Mustafa Ataturk, did everything possible to turn the country into a secular modern state, a significant part of the Sunni population perceived the ongoing reforms with ill-concealed hostility. The situation was aggravated by the continued spread of Western cultural values and way of life, the active cooperation of Turkey with the United States, whose closest ally in the Middle East Turkey remains at the present time. Socio-economic problems of the country also contributed to the radicalization of the lower strata of the Turkish population, some of whom traditionally suffered from religious fundamentalism. Religious fundamentalists see the revival of the caliphate and the establishment of Sharia justice as the solution of the social and economic problems facing modern Turkey. The radicalization of the Turkish fundamentalists was also facilitated by those international events in which Turkey became involved in one way or another in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Among them should be called the war in Afghanistan, the war in Yugoslavia - between the Serbs and the Bosnian Muslims, the war in Chechnya, the "Arab Spring" in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East. In all of these events, Turkish volunteers from among the radical Muslims took part, who then returned home and brought not only more radical views, but also their combat experience to the religious-fundamentalist organizations of the country. The intensification of religious extremists in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen led to an increase in the number of people who sympathize with their activities among Turkish citizens, primarily among radically-minded religious youth.
After the high-profile 11 attacks of September 2001 in the Turkish radical environment, the authority of the organization created by millionaire Osama bin Laden increased. Al-Qaida (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) became widely known in the Islamic world and gained many supporters in the countries of the Middle East, including Turkey. Al-Qaeda’s supporters of the fundamentalist religious views were impressed, first of all, by their radical attitude and obvious successes in Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, this organization enjoyed wide financial support from stakeholders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar. Since Turkey borders on Iraq, where al-Qaida militants have been particularly active since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the American military occupation, the Iraqi branch of the organization extended its influence to Turkish territory. Bin Laden supporters from Turkey underwent combat training in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan. So, it is known that at the end of 1990's. a group of twenty Turkish citizens under the leadership of Habib Akdash underwent combat training in the al-Qaida Afghan camps, after which she was sent to further participate in the hostilities in northern Iraq. Turkish militants fought on the territory of Waziristan - in fact, outside the control of the government forces in the region of Pakistan. A number of Turkish radicals took part in the hostilities in the North Caucasus. Gradually, extremist organizations spread their activities to Turkey. As early as November 2003, two radical synagogues in Istanbul were blown up by radicals, and then an explosion was organized on one of the central streets of the city where the British consulate is located. 60 people died, about 600 people were injured of varying degrees of severity. The Turkish government has blamed Al-Qaida militants for organizing terrorist attacks in Istanbul. As a result of operational activities, the Turkish intelligence services succeeded in arresting 74 suspects, who were members of various extremist religious organizations operating in the country. Most of the suspects underwent combat training in the training camps of radical fundamentalists operating in the territory of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. It turned out that many of them had experience of participating in hostilities in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.
Basically, among the detainees were natives of the south-eastern provinces of the country - the most "problematic" in terms of political and economic stability. It is the southeast of Turkey that is in contact with the belligerent Iraq and Syria, populated by discriminated Kurds, and differs significantly from the west of the country in terms of socio-economic and socio-cultural development. After the 2003 attacks, the Turkish secret services conducted a series of massive operations against religious extremists, which led to the identification of the international terrorist network in the country. In 2006, 47 of Turkish citizens suspected of having links to al Qaeda was arrested. However, the special services could not defeat this organization in the country. The fact is that the specificity of the socio-economic situation in Turkey, characterized, first of all, by significant polarization of the developed western and backward eastern and southeastern regions, causes the constant presence of an explosive socially deprived mass, predominantly youth in composition, deprived of real chances for improvement. their social status and social status. Participating in radical organizations, these young people see a chance to break out of the “disastrous everyday life”; for them religious fundamentalism is a kind of “social utopia” that allows them to live with hope for the future and, if necessary, even sacrifice their lives for their goals. The Turkish state, fighting against terrorism, nevertheless does not actually affect its social bases, and also continues to cultivate right-wing nationalist views, which are fertile ground for the subsequent growth of religious extremism on it.
With the intensification of hostilities in Iraq, and then in Syria, Turkish volunteers, activists of radical organizations, began to play an increasing role in them. Experts talk about entire units, staffed exclusively by Turkish citizens. Some Turkish citizens hold prominent positions in the hierarchy of terrorist groups operating in Iraq and Syria. Thus, in 2007, in Kirkuk (Iraq), a Turkish militant Ahmed Sanchar, better known as Habab at-Turki, was killed. According to media reports, he was one of the leaders of the Al-Qaida Turkish division. Mehmat Yılmam, a citizen of Turkey, was directly involved in organizing the transfer of volunteers from Turkey to Iraq. Another Turk - Mehmet Resit Isik - served as the organizer of the courier work of the Al Qaeda Turkish unit. Meanwhile, an increasing number of political scientists agree that one of the most important factors that influenced the activation of religious extremists in Turkey was the general strengthening of the positions of religious-fundamentalist forces in the political life of the country. And we are talking about the so-called. "Moderate fundamentalists", who are usually associated with the figure of the current Turkish President Recep Erdogan. Over the years 11 - from 2003 to 2014. - Recep Tayyip Erdogan headed the government of Turkey, and before that he headed the Justice and Development Party created by him, was the mayor of Istanbul. Formally, the AKP is considered to be a typically pro-Western party, focused on liberal-market values and the entry of Turkey into the “European Union”. However, representatives of the Turkish opposition and foreign researchers often accuse the AKP of “creeping fundamentalism”, because the party promotes changes in legislation that are beneficial, first of all, to religious-fundamentalist circles. Actually, Recep Erdogan never hid his religious-conservative views, skillfully combining political conservatism with liberal-market views.
After the tragedy in Ankara, Recep Erdogan said that terrorist acts "have roots abroad, namely in Syria." However, the Turkish President did not say more specifically about who he suspects of involvement in terrorist acts. Should these words be understood as a hint of accusations against the "Islamic State"? After all, Turkey is officially considered to be one of the key coalition countries fighting against ISIS on the territory of Syria. But at the same time, many analysts are convinced that without the Turkish policy in Syria, the IG could never have gained the positions it currently possesses. President of the Institute of the Middle East Yevgeny Satanovsky emphasizes that “the flow of terrorists to Syria goes mainly through Turkey. The oil trade, which provides the bulk of the income of the Islamic State, is also carried out through Turkey ”(Satanovsky E. Turkey has nowhere to retreat // http://www.vz.ru/opinions/2015/10/13/772032.html). In fact, it was Turkey that acted as one of the main organizers of anti-Assad armed intervention in Syria, cooperating with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the main sponsors of religious fundamentalism in the Middle East. During the years of the civil war in Syria, Turkey has made too big a contribution to the support of the anti-Assad opposition in order to refuse to participate in the incitement of armed confrontation in the country. In addition, the Turkish government, as a fire, fears the creation of a Kurdish state on the Turkish border - after all, and rightly so, the Syrian Kurds, in the case of creating their own sovereign or even autonomous statehood, will become an appropriate example for their Turkish tribesmen who have been fighting for their political recognition and self-determination. Formations of the IG, fighting in Northern Syria, just prevent the Kurds from further creating and strengthening autonomy, that is, they objectively act "on hand" to the Turkish government interested in weakening the Kurds.
Is a "Kurdish trace" possible?
By the way, the "Kurdish trail" is also trying to find in the thundering explosions in Ankara. Someone is extremely beneficial to discredit the Kurdish national liberation movement in Turkey - and this is despite the fact that the victims of the terrorist attacks were mostly marchers for peace, among whom activists of pro-Kurdish political organizations of the left were predominant. However, without waiting for the results of the investigation, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu named the Kurdistan Workers' Party among the four organizations that may be suspected of involvement in the organization of terrorist acts in Ankara. For more than thirty years, the Workers' Party of Kurdistan has been fighting for self-determination of Turkish Kurds, most of whom live in the south-eastern provinces of the country. As is known, Turkish Kurds throughout the existence of the modern Turkish state were subjected to discrimination by the Turkish authorities, manifested, among other things, in the denial of the right to existence of the Kurdish nation. Stubbornly following the concept of “nation-state”, the Turkish leadership sought to fully turkise the Kurdish population, with the aim of which not only did it not allow to create structures of autonomy and self-government, but also prohibited the study and even use of the Kurdish language. Over the past decades, the phases of active hostilities were interspersed with sluggish confrontation, and the total number of casualties was at least 40 thousand people. The Kurdistan Workers' Party was recognized by the Turkish government, as well as by the United States and a number of European states, a terrorist organization. Initially, the Kurdistan Workers Party was in Marxist-Leninist positions, however, after the party leader Abdullah Ocalan, currently in prison, became acquainted with the writings of the American social ecologist and self-governing theorist Murray Bukchin, in his political views there was a turn towards anarchism and anarcho -synicalism, after which the Kurdistan Workers' Party began to focus on the development of democratic self-government and criticism of all forms of state organization of society, including the national the state. In recent years, the Kurdistan Workers Party has refrained from active armed struggle, which has inspired many Turkish citizens in the hope of a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish problem, at least in the foreseeable future. However, the civil war in Syria again actualized the problem of the Kurds of Turkey. The fact is that with the start of hostilities in Syria, the formation of Syrian Kurds put under their control a significant part of the territory of the Kurdish regions of the country - Syrian Kurdistan, or the Rozhava. Naturally, the Kurds of Turkey provided significant assistance to the Syrian Kurds from the very beginning, especially since the organization operating in Syria - the Kurdistan Democratic Union - is an ideological follower of the Kurdistan Workers' Party and focuses on the political concept of Ocalan. For the Turkish government, the creation of an independent and even autonomous Kurdish state in northern Syria is a “terrible dream”, so from the very beginning of the struggle of the Kurds of Rozhava, the Turkish authorities have taken various measures to prevent the creation of a Kurdish state. Among these measures is the actual support of the IS militants fighting the Kurds. The fact is that after the “Islamic State” reached a number of regions of Syria to the Syrian-Turkish border, supply of smuggled cheap oil products from Syria and Iraq was organized through sections of the border controlled by its armed formations. In many respects, it is precisely through the export of petroleum products to Turkey that the activities of the Islamic State in the Middle East are being financed today. Naturally, the victory of the Kurds of Rozhava over the “Islamic State” in Northern Syria would also mean the closure of parts of the Syrian-Turkish border, which means the cessation of the supply of petroleum products at cheap prices from Syria and Iraq.
When an explosion occurred in the Turkish city of Suruç in 2015 in July, the Kurdistan Workers Party blamed Turkish security services for involvement in it, which caused a new round of Turkish-Kurdish conflict. In Turkey’s Kurdistan Region, and later in other regions of the country, attacks on policemen and military personnel have resumed. Simultaneously with the activation of Kurdish activists, Turkish military units stationed in the south-east of the country began operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party. In parallel with the fight against the Kurdish opposition in Turkey, the Turkish army began to fire the positions of the Kurds in Syria and Iraq. Naturally, the response to these actions of the Turkish government were mass demonstrations in large Turkish cities, undertaken by Kurds and pro-Kurdish left forces, and accompanied by clashes with the police. Kurdish demonstrations were also held in Western European countries, where an impressively large number of Kurdish diasporas live - immigrants from Turkey, Syria and Iraq. In some cases, Kurds attacked Turkish diplomatic missions. When explosions occurred on Ankara’s 10 on Saturday, the Kurdistan Workers ’Party, declaring the need to show respect for the victims of the terrorist attacks (and among the victims were many activists and sympathizers of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and some other Kurdish and left-wing organizations in the country) reiterated the truce. But the Turkish leadership responded to the truce with a statement about the unequivocal continuation of military operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Thus, the Turkish leadership makes it clear that the Kurdish national liberation movement and its activists remain for him "enemy number one", against which it is necessary to wage a merciless "extermination" war.
"Red partisans": the probability is extremely low
Another version that the Turkish media are talking about today is the possible participation in the organization of terrorist acts in Ankara of any of the left-wing armed organizations operating in Turkey. Already at the turn of the 1960s - 1970s, on the basis of a radical student movement, the formation of revolutionary ultra-left organizations focused on the armed struggle against the existing political regime began in Turkey. In an ideological sense, these organizations focused on Maoism, Stalinism or Gavarism. The most famous in the early 1970s. received the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Ordusu), created by Deniz Gezmish. A graduate of the Faculty of Law of Istanbul University, Deniz Gezmish (1947-1972) gained fame as one of the leaders of the student movement, participating in the capture of the university on June 12, 1968, in protests against visits of the American ambassador and the arrival of the 6th Naval Army in Turkey fleet USA. Gezmish then went through a training course at the training camps of the Palestinian movement in Jordan and returned to Turkey, where he participated in the expropriation of the bank and the capture of four American soldiers. However, Turkish government forces managed to block Deniz Gezmish and his comrades. On October 9, 1971, Deniz Gezmish, Yusuf Aslan, and Hussein Inan were sentenced to death and executed. Already after his death, Denise Gezmish, not without fame during his life, turned into a real “icon” of the Turkish left-wing radical movement. Until now, the profile of Deniz Gezmish adorns the banners of the Turkish left, and many of his modern fans were born decades after his execution. Another major revolutionary organization was the People's Liberation Party Front of Turkey (Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi), created by another student leader, Mahir Chayyan (1945-1972), who studied at the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University and headed the Federation of Student Groups. When the Turkish secret services arrested Deniz Gezmish, Yusuf Aslan and Hussein Inan, Mahir Chayyan, at the head of a detachment of nine of his associates, took two British and a Canadian hostage. Four days later, Chayyan’s detachment was destroyed in a shootout with government troops in the village of Kizildere. Finally, the third equally well-known organization - the Communist Party of Turkey (Marxist-Leninist) - Türkiye Komünist Partisi / Marksist-Leninist - professed the ideology of Maoism. It was created by Ibrahim Kaypakkaya (1949-1973), a student at the Faculty of Physics at Istanbul University, who was known in a revolutionary environment under the nickname “For.” He tried to create a partisan detachment to confront the Turkish government, but was betrayed by traitors and shot dead without trial.
These three left-wing organizations were at the origin of modern Turkish armed revolutionary resistance. Currently, two radical ultra-left organizations are the most active in Turkey - both were named as possible organizers of terrorist acts in Ankara. First, it is the Marxist-Leninist Party of Turkey - the direct heir of the Maoists Ibrahim Kaipakkaya, leading a long-term armed struggle against the Turkish government and specializing in the methods of "urban guerrilla", that is, terrorist acts in the cities. Secondly, this is the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party - the front (Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Partisi-Cephesi). It was created by Dursun Karatash (1952-2008), who from the young years was actively involved in the activities of the Federation of Revolutionary Youth of Turkey, and then the organization of Mahir Chayyan. The militants of the organization created by Karatash committed a significant number of terrorist acts in Turkey, which forced the Turkish special services to include the “front-party” among the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the country. Both Marxist-Leninists and followers of Karatash hate the existing political system in Turkey and President Erdogan, moreover - they never hid their focus on the armed struggle against the Turkish government. However, a large number of left-wing activists, including supporters of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Turkey and the Revolutionary Popular Liberation Party-Front, attended the peace march. Therefore, most researchers of the political situation in Turkey doubt that the attack could have been planned and carried out by radical left activists.
Simultaneously with the statements of top officials of the Turkish state about the possible involvement of Islamists, Kurds or left-wing radicals in terrorist acts in Ankara, a number of Turkish politicians almost openly accused the country's leadership of acquiescing in terrorists. Thus, Salahattin Demirtas, leader of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, stated that the Turkish authorities themselves are directly responsible for the terrorist attacks in Ankara. First, the Turkish authorities did not provide a full investigation of the explosion in Suruç, the attacks on the activists of the People’s Democratic Party during a demonstration in June 2015. It is possible that Recep Erdogan, whose party is losing the support of the Turkish electorate and political influence in the country, contributes to destabilizing the situation, trying to split Turkish society and provoke anti-Kurdish sentiment in it, which will lead to the consolidation of voters around Erdogan and the “party of power”. In this regard, Erdogan, of course, benefits terrorist acts in Ankara, especially since the main victims of the terrorist attacks were precisely the staunch opponents of the Erdogan regime - Kurdish and radical left activists. But, on the other hand, the explosions leave many questions to Erdogan as the head of the Turkish state, who failed to properly direct the work of the special services and increase its effectiveness towards identifying the sources of genuine threats to the stability of Turkish society. Despite the fact that huge sums are allocated for defense, security and public order in Turkey, as practice shows, Turkish law enforcement agencies and special services are not able to carry out full-fledged work to prevent such large-scale terrorist acts.
Is the Erdogan government to blame for the explosions?
Meanwhile, all the new data about the details of the terrorist attacks in Ankara come. Thus, the Ankara Security Directorate reported that the bombings were organized by suicide bombers. One of them, according to intelligence, was a young man 25-30 years. Within a radius of one and a half kilometers from the site of the explosion, a severed human finger was found, which, as suspected by the secret services, could belong to a suicide bomber. In addition, a large number of traces of gunpowder was found on one of the bodies, which, according to intelligence officers, indicates that an explosive device was attached to this person. Specialists of the Turkish special services reported that trinitrotoluene was used to carry out the attack. Parallels have already been drawn with the July 20 terrorist attack on 2015 in Suruç, during which 32 people died and 100 people were injured. As it is known, the militant of the “Islamic State” acted in Suruç, therefore it is possible that the bombings in Ankara were carried out by terrorists who quit this radical organization. Experts believe that the mere participation of suicide bombers in an act of terrorism indicates the involvement of radical fundamentalist organizations in it - not necessarily the "Islamic state", but definitely a religious extremist structure. The fact is that for the secular opposition, to which the Workers Party of Kurdistan and Turkish left-wing radical organizations belong, is completely uncharacteristic, firstly, the use of suicide bombers (the Kurds have the practice of using suicide bombers, but in the overwhelming majority of cases they are attacked by police areas and military units), and secondly - the organization of explosions in places of mass gathering of unauthorized people who are not related to the activities of the Turkish security forces, US missions or large go business. Thus, religious extremists are currently the most likely suspects in the organization of terrorist attacks.
The bombings in Ankara have already led to the beginning of mass demonstrations against the policies of the Erdogan government. In Diyarbakir, the capital of Turkish Kurdistan, the anti-government demonstration escalated into clashes between supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the police. Numerous demonstrations were held in European cities, primarily in Germany, where the numerous Kurdish diaspora lives. So, in Stuttgart, about 5 thousands of people took to the streets, in Hamburg - 1500 people, in Berlin - about 1000 people, in Freiburg - 700 people, in Mannheim - 400 people. Participants in meetings held in Germany accused the Turkish authorities of complicity in the commission of a bloody terrorist act. The Kurds believe that it is Erdogan who is responsible for the death of people, since he does not benefit from the cessation of the armed operation of the army and special services against the Kurdish national liberation movement. Some relatives of the victims and activists of the Kurdish movement say directly that the explosions could have been planned and carried out by the Turkish special services. Thus, one of the activists Ibrahim Kara said that “the attack is part of the strategy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), aimed at increasing the level of violence and undermining the positions of the pro-Kurdish opposition through the growth of chauvinistic sentiments in society” (Quote: http: / /nv.ua/publications/vzryv-nadezhdy-kak-terakt-v-ankare-mozhet-pomoch-kurdskoj-nezavisimosti-73906.html). As it is known, early parliamentary elections are scheduled for November 1 in Turkey and, as practice shows, just before the elections Erdogan and his supporters, fearing the growing influence of pro-Kurdish political parties, can successfully play on the mass hysteria caused by terrorist acts and the establishment of insecurity many Turkish citizens. This is evidenced by the events of the summer of 2015, when the AKP, controlled by Erdogan, was unable to form a parliamentary majority, after which the president actually disrupted the creation of a coalition government and announced new early parliamentary elections. In order to strengthen his position, Erdogan launched a new round of the Turkish-Kurdish war, speaking not only against the Turkish, but also against the Syrian Kurds. However, the Kurds had enough strength not only to not retreat from the territory of Turkey, but also to bring a number of settlements under control, thereby forming “liberated territories” in Turkey. It is noteworthy that the official authorities of Turkey, emphasizing their innocence to the incident, nevertheless also agree that the attacks could have been timed to the upcoming elections - with the aim of disrupting them or affecting their results.
The Erdogan government used the tragedy in Ankara as another occasion to intensify hostilities against the Kurdistan Workers Party. As it became known, already on October 11, the day after the attacks, the airplanes of the Turkish Air Force subjected aviation bombardment of the position of the Kurdistan Workers Party in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. The Turkish Ministry of Defense said that the bombing is indeed the answer for the terrorist attacks in Ankara. That is, the Turkish leadership is trying to represent the Kurdistan Workers Party as one of the main suspects in the bombing case. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that Erdogan is using tragedy to strengthen his position - including through a tightening-up policy of renewing and intensifying repressions against political opponents, primarily Kurds and leftists. But the Kurds will receive their political dividends. Today the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has declared a ceasefire, and the pro-Kurdish organizations that regularly organize “peace marches” look much more humane and adequate political forces than Recep Erdogan, who is not going to make any concessions to the Kurds and, moreover, in his anti-Kurdish politics came to the actual "play on the arm" of the Islamic State. Erdogan's nationalist policy in modern conditions, when virtually independent Kurdish enclaves operate on the Turkish borders - Iraqi Kurdistan and Rojava, in addition to fighting against IS and receiving public support for the same European countries and the USA, can lead, if not to the collapse of a single Turkish state then to serious political destabilization. Fighting the Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, Erdogan actually turns into a tactical ally of the Islamic State, and this inevitably entails a confrontation not only with the Kurds, but also with the countries of the anti-ISIS coalition.
Photographic materials were used: http://news.bigmir.net/, http://www.rg.ru/, http://www.lragir.am/, http://rian.com.ua/, http: / /mylondondiary.co.uk/
Despite the fact that during the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish nationalists managed to squeeze virtually all Christians out of the country - Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, hundreds of thousands of whom were victims of war crimes, and failed to achieve the internal unity of the Turkish nation. Disengagement is still taking place on an ethnic and confessional plane - not only between Turks and Kurds, which remain the country's largest national minority, but also between Sunni Muslims and followers of “heretical” from the point of view of Sunni religions close to Shiism (above all, we are talking about Alevis which should not be confused with the Syrian Alawite). It is the ethno-confessional division of Turkish society that underlies political contradictions. Conservative Sunnis tend to support right-wing nationalist and religious-fundamentalist parties, Alevis and Kurds traditionally support the left-wing spectrum of Turkish politics, up to and including cooperation with ultra-left Maoist and Stalinist organizations. The events in Syria exacerbated the already complex political situation in Turkey, leading to the intensification of hostilities by Turkish government forces against the Kurds in the south-east of the country, to the commission of a number of terrorist acts, the largest of which were the bombings in Ankara. .
On the morning of October 10 under the overpass near the Ankara railway station two explosions thundered, the victims of which were 97 dead and 246 injured people. The Turkish government declared a three-day mourning in the country. Law enforcement agencies and special services are looking for potential terrorists, and the public, meanwhile, is discussing what happened, trying to figure out who can stand behind the explosions that thundered at the station. On the day of the bombings, thousands of people gathered on the peace march under anti-war slogans. The march “Labor, Peace, Democracy” was organized by trade union organizations and left-wing political parties in Turkey, including the People’s Democratic Party, which is known for its pro-Kurdish positions, as well as a number of other left-wing and left-wing radical organizations. After the explosions thundered, panic began. To calm the crowd, the police were forced to use tear gas and shoot into the air, but these actions only further aroused people. There were clashes with the police. Despite the fact that no one took responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Ankara, the Turkish government announced the main suspects. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the main suspect in the terrorist attacks is the "Islamic State". The newspaper Haberturk drew attention to the fact that the type of explosive device and the choice of location of the explosion testify in favor of the terrorist act being carried out by militants of the Islamic State, which has strong positions in southeastern Turkey - near the Syrian border. Recall that the “Islamic state” fighting in Syria enjoys considerable support from the Turkish radical fundamentalists, and the left forces of Turkey accuse the government of the actual complicity to terrorists, since fighting with the Kurds, who are among the active opponents of the Islamic State in Syria, Turkey, in fact , stands on the side of the "Islamic state". Meanwhile, in Turkey itself, the security services and the police are more likely to fight with the "Islamic State", exposing to the persecution of quite numerous Turkish religious radicals.
Religious Extremists - Version One
The spread of “radical Islam” in Turkey is a consequence of the political upheavals that the country has been facing in recent decades. Despite the fact that in the first half of the twentieth century. the ruling circles of Turkey, starting with Mustafa Ataturk, did everything possible to turn the country into a secular modern state, a significant part of the Sunni population perceived the ongoing reforms with ill-concealed hostility. The situation was aggravated by the continued spread of Western cultural values and way of life, the active cooperation of Turkey with the United States, whose closest ally in the Middle East Turkey remains at the present time. Socio-economic problems of the country also contributed to the radicalization of the lower strata of the Turkish population, some of whom traditionally suffered from religious fundamentalism. Religious fundamentalists see the revival of the caliphate and the establishment of Sharia justice as the solution of the social and economic problems facing modern Turkey. The radicalization of the Turkish fundamentalists was also facilitated by those international events in which Turkey became involved in one way or another in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Among them should be called the war in Afghanistan, the war in Yugoslavia - between the Serbs and the Bosnian Muslims, the war in Chechnya, the "Arab Spring" in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East. In all of these events, Turkish volunteers from among the radical Muslims took part, who then returned home and brought not only more radical views, but also their combat experience to the religious-fundamentalist organizations of the country. The intensification of religious extremists in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen led to an increase in the number of people who sympathize with their activities among Turkish citizens, primarily among radically-minded religious youth.
After the high-profile 11 attacks of September 2001 in the Turkish radical environment, the authority of the organization created by millionaire Osama bin Laden increased. Al-Qaida (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) became widely known in the Islamic world and gained many supporters in the countries of the Middle East, including Turkey. Al-Qaeda’s supporters of the fundamentalist religious views were impressed, first of all, by their radical attitude and obvious successes in Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, this organization enjoyed wide financial support from stakeholders in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar. Since Turkey borders on Iraq, where al-Qaida militants have been particularly active since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the American military occupation, the Iraqi branch of the organization extended its influence to Turkish territory. Bin Laden supporters from Turkey underwent combat training in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan. So, it is known that at the end of 1990's. a group of twenty Turkish citizens under the leadership of Habib Akdash underwent combat training in the al-Qaida Afghan camps, after which she was sent to further participate in the hostilities in northern Iraq. Turkish militants fought on the territory of Waziristan - in fact, outside the control of the government forces in the region of Pakistan. A number of Turkish radicals took part in the hostilities in the North Caucasus. Gradually, extremist organizations spread their activities to Turkey. As early as November 2003, two radical synagogues in Istanbul were blown up by radicals, and then an explosion was organized on one of the central streets of the city where the British consulate is located. 60 people died, about 600 people were injured of varying degrees of severity. The Turkish government has blamed Al-Qaida militants for organizing terrorist attacks in Istanbul. As a result of operational activities, the Turkish intelligence services succeeded in arresting 74 suspects, who were members of various extremist religious organizations operating in the country. Most of the suspects underwent combat training in the training camps of radical fundamentalists operating in the territory of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. It turned out that many of them had experience of participating in hostilities in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.
Basically, among the detainees were natives of the south-eastern provinces of the country - the most "problematic" in terms of political and economic stability. It is the southeast of Turkey that is in contact with the belligerent Iraq and Syria, populated by discriminated Kurds, and differs significantly from the west of the country in terms of socio-economic and socio-cultural development. After the 2003 attacks, the Turkish secret services conducted a series of massive operations against religious extremists, which led to the identification of the international terrorist network in the country. In 2006, 47 of Turkish citizens suspected of having links to al Qaeda was arrested. However, the special services could not defeat this organization in the country. The fact is that the specificity of the socio-economic situation in Turkey, characterized, first of all, by significant polarization of the developed western and backward eastern and southeastern regions, causes the constant presence of an explosive socially deprived mass, predominantly youth in composition, deprived of real chances for improvement. their social status and social status. Participating in radical organizations, these young people see a chance to break out of the “disastrous everyday life”; for them religious fundamentalism is a kind of “social utopia” that allows them to live with hope for the future and, if necessary, even sacrifice their lives for their goals. The Turkish state, fighting against terrorism, nevertheless does not actually affect its social bases, and also continues to cultivate right-wing nationalist views, which are fertile ground for the subsequent growth of religious extremism on it.
With the intensification of hostilities in Iraq, and then in Syria, Turkish volunteers, activists of radical organizations, began to play an increasing role in them. Experts talk about entire units, staffed exclusively by Turkish citizens. Some Turkish citizens hold prominent positions in the hierarchy of terrorist groups operating in Iraq and Syria. Thus, in 2007, in Kirkuk (Iraq), a Turkish militant Ahmed Sanchar, better known as Habab at-Turki, was killed. According to media reports, he was one of the leaders of the Al-Qaida Turkish division. Mehmat Yılmam, a citizen of Turkey, was directly involved in organizing the transfer of volunteers from Turkey to Iraq. Another Turk - Mehmet Resit Isik - served as the organizer of the courier work of the Al Qaeda Turkish unit. Meanwhile, an increasing number of political scientists agree that one of the most important factors that influenced the activation of religious extremists in Turkey was the general strengthening of the positions of religious-fundamentalist forces in the political life of the country. And we are talking about the so-called. "Moderate fundamentalists", who are usually associated with the figure of the current Turkish President Recep Erdogan. Over the years 11 - from 2003 to 2014. - Recep Tayyip Erdogan headed the government of Turkey, and before that he headed the Justice and Development Party created by him, was the mayor of Istanbul. Formally, the AKP is considered to be a typically pro-Western party, focused on liberal-market values and the entry of Turkey into the “European Union”. However, representatives of the Turkish opposition and foreign researchers often accuse the AKP of “creeping fundamentalism”, because the party promotes changes in legislation that are beneficial, first of all, to religious-fundamentalist circles. Actually, Recep Erdogan never hid his religious-conservative views, skillfully combining political conservatism with liberal-market views.
After the tragedy in Ankara, Recep Erdogan said that terrorist acts "have roots abroad, namely in Syria." However, the Turkish President did not say more specifically about who he suspects of involvement in terrorist acts. Should these words be understood as a hint of accusations against the "Islamic State"? After all, Turkey is officially considered to be one of the key coalition countries fighting against ISIS on the territory of Syria. But at the same time, many analysts are convinced that without the Turkish policy in Syria, the IG could never have gained the positions it currently possesses. President of the Institute of the Middle East Yevgeny Satanovsky emphasizes that “the flow of terrorists to Syria goes mainly through Turkey. The oil trade, which provides the bulk of the income of the Islamic State, is also carried out through Turkey ”(Satanovsky E. Turkey has nowhere to retreat // http://www.vz.ru/opinions/2015/10/13/772032.html). In fact, it was Turkey that acted as one of the main organizers of anti-Assad armed intervention in Syria, cooperating with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the main sponsors of religious fundamentalism in the Middle East. During the years of the civil war in Syria, Turkey has made too big a contribution to the support of the anti-Assad opposition in order to refuse to participate in the incitement of armed confrontation in the country. In addition, the Turkish government, as a fire, fears the creation of a Kurdish state on the Turkish border - after all, and rightly so, the Syrian Kurds, in the case of creating their own sovereign or even autonomous statehood, will become an appropriate example for their Turkish tribesmen who have been fighting for their political recognition and self-determination. Formations of the IG, fighting in Northern Syria, just prevent the Kurds from further creating and strengthening autonomy, that is, they objectively act "on hand" to the Turkish government interested in weakening the Kurds.
Is a "Kurdish trace" possible?
By the way, the "Kurdish trail" is also trying to find in the thundering explosions in Ankara. Someone is extremely beneficial to discredit the Kurdish national liberation movement in Turkey - and this is despite the fact that the victims of the terrorist attacks were mostly marchers for peace, among whom activists of pro-Kurdish political organizations of the left were predominant. However, without waiting for the results of the investigation, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu named the Kurdistan Workers' Party among the four organizations that may be suspected of involvement in the organization of terrorist acts in Ankara. For more than thirty years, the Workers' Party of Kurdistan has been fighting for self-determination of Turkish Kurds, most of whom live in the south-eastern provinces of the country. As is known, Turkish Kurds throughout the existence of the modern Turkish state were subjected to discrimination by the Turkish authorities, manifested, among other things, in the denial of the right to existence of the Kurdish nation. Stubbornly following the concept of “nation-state”, the Turkish leadership sought to fully turkise the Kurdish population, with the aim of which not only did it not allow to create structures of autonomy and self-government, but also prohibited the study and even use of the Kurdish language. Over the past decades, the phases of active hostilities were interspersed with sluggish confrontation, and the total number of casualties was at least 40 thousand people. The Kurdistan Workers' Party was recognized by the Turkish government, as well as by the United States and a number of European states, a terrorist organization. Initially, the Kurdistan Workers Party was in Marxist-Leninist positions, however, after the party leader Abdullah Ocalan, currently in prison, became acquainted with the writings of the American social ecologist and self-governing theorist Murray Bukchin, in his political views there was a turn towards anarchism and anarcho -synicalism, after which the Kurdistan Workers' Party began to focus on the development of democratic self-government and criticism of all forms of state organization of society, including the national the state. In recent years, the Kurdistan Workers Party has refrained from active armed struggle, which has inspired many Turkish citizens in the hope of a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish problem, at least in the foreseeable future. However, the civil war in Syria again actualized the problem of the Kurds of Turkey. The fact is that with the start of hostilities in Syria, the formation of Syrian Kurds put under their control a significant part of the territory of the Kurdish regions of the country - Syrian Kurdistan, or the Rozhava. Naturally, the Kurds of Turkey provided significant assistance to the Syrian Kurds from the very beginning, especially since the organization operating in Syria - the Kurdistan Democratic Union - is an ideological follower of the Kurdistan Workers' Party and focuses on the political concept of Ocalan. For the Turkish government, the creation of an independent and even autonomous Kurdish state in northern Syria is a “terrible dream”, so from the very beginning of the struggle of the Kurds of Rozhava, the Turkish authorities have taken various measures to prevent the creation of a Kurdish state. Among these measures is the actual support of the IS militants fighting the Kurds. The fact is that after the “Islamic State” reached a number of regions of Syria to the Syrian-Turkish border, supply of smuggled cheap oil products from Syria and Iraq was organized through sections of the border controlled by its armed formations. In many respects, it is precisely through the export of petroleum products to Turkey that the activities of the Islamic State in the Middle East are being financed today. Naturally, the victory of the Kurds of Rozhava over the “Islamic State” in Northern Syria would also mean the closure of parts of the Syrian-Turkish border, which means the cessation of the supply of petroleum products at cheap prices from Syria and Iraq.
When an explosion occurred in the Turkish city of Suruç in 2015 in July, the Kurdistan Workers Party blamed Turkish security services for involvement in it, which caused a new round of Turkish-Kurdish conflict. In Turkey’s Kurdistan Region, and later in other regions of the country, attacks on policemen and military personnel have resumed. Simultaneously with the activation of Kurdish activists, Turkish military units stationed in the south-east of the country began operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party. In parallel with the fight against the Kurdish opposition in Turkey, the Turkish army began to fire the positions of the Kurds in Syria and Iraq. Naturally, the response to these actions of the Turkish government were mass demonstrations in large Turkish cities, undertaken by Kurds and pro-Kurdish left forces, and accompanied by clashes with the police. Kurdish demonstrations were also held in Western European countries, where an impressively large number of Kurdish diasporas live - immigrants from Turkey, Syria and Iraq. In some cases, Kurds attacked Turkish diplomatic missions. When explosions occurred on Ankara’s 10 on Saturday, the Kurdistan Workers ’Party, declaring the need to show respect for the victims of the terrorist attacks (and among the victims were many activists and sympathizers of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and some other Kurdish and left-wing organizations in the country) reiterated the truce. But the Turkish leadership responded to the truce with a statement about the unequivocal continuation of military operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party. Thus, the Turkish leadership makes it clear that the Kurdish national liberation movement and its activists remain for him "enemy number one", against which it is necessary to wage a merciless "extermination" war.
"Red partisans": the probability is extremely low
Another version that the Turkish media are talking about today is the possible participation in the organization of terrorist acts in Ankara of any of the left-wing armed organizations operating in Turkey. Already at the turn of the 1960s - 1970s, on the basis of a radical student movement, the formation of revolutionary ultra-left organizations focused on the armed struggle against the existing political regime began in Turkey. In an ideological sense, these organizations focused on Maoism, Stalinism or Gavarism. The most famous in the early 1970s. received the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Ordusu), created by Deniz Gezmish. A graduate of the Faculty of Law of Istanbul University, Deniz Gezmish (1947-1972) gained fame as one of the leaders of the student movement, participating in the capture of the university on June 12, 1968, in protests against visits of the American ambassador and the arrival of the 6th Naval Army in Turkey fleet USA. Gezmish then went through a training course at the training camps of the Palestinian movement in Jordan and returned to Turkey, where he participated in the expropriation of the bank and the capture of four American soldiers. However, Turkish government forces managed to block Deniz Gezmish and his comrades. On October 9, 1971, Deniz Gezmish, Yusuf Aslan, and Hussein Inan were sentenced to death and executed. Already after his death, Denise Gezmish, not without fame during his life, turned into a real “icon” of the Turkish left-wing radical movement. Until now, the profile of Deniz Gezmish adorns the banners of the Turkish left, and many of his modern fans were born decades after his execution. Another major revolutionary organization was the People's Liberation Party Front of Turkey (Türkiye Halk Kurtuluş Partisi-Cephesi), created by another student leader, Mahir Chayyan (1945-1972), who studied at the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University and headed the Federation of Student Groups. When the Turkish secret services arrested Deniz Gezmish, Yusuf Aslan and Hussein Inan, Mahir Chayyan, at the head of a detachment of nine of his associates, took two British and a Canadian hostage. Four days later, Chayyan’s detachment was destroyed in a shootout with government troops in the village of Kizildere. Finally, the third equally well-known organization - the Communist Party of Turkey (Marxist-Leninist) - Türkiye Komünist Partisi / Marksist-Leninist - professed the ideology of Maoism. It was created by Ibrahim Kaypakkaya (1949-1973), a student at the Faculty of Physics at Istanbul University, who was known in a revolutionary environment under the nickname “For.” He tried to create a partisan detachment to confront the Turkish government, but was betrayed by traitors and shot dead without trial.
These three left-wing organizations were at the origin of modern Turkish armed revolutionary resistance. Currently, two radical ultra-left organizations are the most active in Turkey - both were named as possible organizers of terrorist acts in Ankara. First, it is the Marxist-Leninist Party of Turkey - the direct heir of the Maoists Ibrahim Kaipakkaya, leading a long-term armed struggle against the Turkish government and specializing in the methods of "urban guerrilla", that is, terrorist acts in the cities. Secondly, this is the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party - the front (Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Partisi-Cephesi). It was created by Dursun Karatash (1952-2008), who from the young years was actively involved in the activities of the Federation of Revolutionary Youth of Turkey, and then the organization of Mahir Chayyan. The militants of the organization created by Karatash committed a significant number of terrorist acts in Turkey, which forced the Turkish special services to include the “front-party” among the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the country. Both Marxist-Leninists and followers of Karatash hate the existing political system in Turkey and President Erdogan, moreover - they never hid their focus on the armed struggle against the Turkish government. However, a large number of left-wing activists, including supporters of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Turkey and the Revolutionary Popular Liberation Party-Front, attended the peace march. Therefore, most researchers of the political situation in Turkey doubt that the attack could have been planned and carried out by radical left activists.
Simultaneously with the statements of top officials of the Turkish state about the possible involvement of Islamists, Kurds or left-wing radicals in terrorist acts in Ankara, a number of Turkish politicians almost openly accused the country's leadership of acquiescing in terrorists. Thus, Salahattin Demirtas, leader of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, stated that the Turkish authorities themselves are directly responsible for the terrorist attacks in Ankara. First, the Turkish authorities did not provide a full investigation of the explosion in Suruç, the attacks on the activists of the People’s Democratic Party during a demonstration in June 2015. It is possible that Recep Erdogan, whose party is losing the support of the Turkish electorate and political influence in the country, contributes to destabilizing the situation, trying to split Turkish society and provoke anti-Kurdish sentiment in it, which will lead to the consolidation of voters around Erdogan and the “party of power”. In this regard, Erdogan, of course, benefits terrorist acts in Ankara, especially since the main victims of the terrorist attacks were precisely the staunch opponents of the Erdogan regime - Kurdish and radical left activists. But, on the other hand, the explosions leave many questions to Erdogan as the head of the Turkish state, who failed to properly direct the work of the special services and increase its effectiveness towards identifying the sources of genuine threats to the stability of Turkish society. Despite the fact that huge sums are allocated for defense, security and public order in Turkey, as practice shows, Turkish law enforcement agencies and special services are not able to carry out full-fledged work to prevent such large-scale terrorist acts.
Is the Erdogan government to blame for the explosions?
Meanwhile, all the new data about the details of the terrorist attacks in Ankara come. Thus, the Ankara Security Directorate reported that the bombings were organized by suicide bombers. One of them, according to intelligence, was a young man 25-30 years. Within a radius of one and a half kilometers from the site of the explosion, a severed human finger was found, which, as suspected by the secret services, could belong to a suicide bomber. In addition, a large number of traces of gunpowder was found on one of the bodies, which, according to intelligence officers, indicates that an explosive device was attached to this person. Specialists of the Turkish special services reported that trinitrotoluene was used to carry out the attack. Parallels have already been drawn with the July 20 terrorist attack on 2015 in Suruç, during which 32 people died and 100 people were injured. As it is known, the militant of the “Islamic State” acted in Suruç, therefore it is possible that the bombings in Ankara were carried out by terrorists who quit this radical organization. Experts believe that the mere participation of suicide bombers in an act of terrorism indicates the involvement of radical fundamentalist organizations in it - not necessarily the "Islamic state", but definitely a religious extremist structure. The fact is that for the secular opposition, to which the Workers Party of Kurdistan and Turkish left-wing radical organizations belong, is completely uncharacteristic, firstly, the use of suicide bombers (the Kurds have the practice of using suicide bombers, but in the overwhelming majority of cases they are attacked by police areas and military units), and secondly - the organization of explosions in places of mass gathering of unauthorized people who are not related to the activities of the Turkish security forces, US missions or large go business. Thus, religious extremists are currently the most likely suspects in the organization of terrorist attacks.
The bombings in Ankara have already led to the beginning of mass demonstrations against the policies of the Erdogan government. In Diyarbakir, the capital of Turkish Kurdistan, the anti-government demonstration escalated into clashes between supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party and the police. Numerous demonstrations were held in European cities, primarily in Germany, where the numerous Kurdish diaspora lives. So, in Stuttgart, about 5 thousands of people took to the streets, in Hamburg - 1500 people, in Berlin - about 1000 people, in Freiburg - 700 people, in Mannheim - 400 people. Participants in meetings held in Germany accused the Turkish authorities of complicity in the commission of a bloody terrorist act. The Kurds believe that it is Erdogan who is responsible for the death of people, since he does not benefit from the cessation of the armed operation of the army and special services against the Kurdish national liberation movement. Some relatives of the victims and activists of the Kurdish movement say directly that the explosions could have been planned and carried out by the Turkish special services. Thus, one of the activists Ibrahim Kara said that “the attack is part of the strategy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), aimed at increasing the level of violence and undermining the positions of the pro-Kurdish opposition through the growth of chauvinistic sentiments in society” (Quote: http: / /nv.ua/publications/vzryv-nadezhdy-kak-terakt-v-ankare-mozhet-pomoch-kurdskoj-nezavisimosti-73906.html). As it is known, early parliamentary elections are scheduled for November 1 in Turkey and, as practice shows, just before the elections Erdogan and his supporters, fearing the growing influence of pro-Kurdish political parties, can successfully play on the mass hysteria caused by terrorist acts and the establishment of insecurity many Turkish citizens. This is evidenced by the events of the summer of 2015, when the AKP, controlled by Erdogan, was unable to form a parliamentary majority, after which the president actually disrupted the creation of a coalition government and announced new early parliamentary elections. In order to strengthen his position, Erdogan launched a new round of the Turkish-Kurdish war, speaking not only against the Turkish, but also against the Syrian Kurds. However, the Kurds had enough strength not only to not retreat from the territory of Turkey, but also to bring a number of settlements under control, thereby forming “liberated territories” in Turkey. It is noteworthy that the official authorities of Turkey, emphasizing their innocence to the incident, nevertheless also agree that the attacks could have been timed to the upcoming elections - with the aim of disrupting them or affecting their results.
The Erdogan government used the tragedy in Ankara as another occasion to intensify hostilities against the Kurdistan Workers Party. As it became known, already on October 11, the day after the attacks, the airplanes of the Turkish Air Force subjected aviation bombardment of the position of the Kurdistan Workers Party in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. The Turkish Ministry of Defense said that the bombing is indeed the answer for the terrorist attacks in Ankara. That is, the Turkish leadership is trying to represent the Kurdistan Workers Party as one of the main suspects in the bombing case. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that Erdogan is using tragedy to strengthen his position - including through a tightening-up policy of renewing and intensifying repressions against political opponents, primarily Kurds and leftists. But the Kurds will receive their political dividends. Today the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has declared a ceasefire, and the pro-Kurdish organizations that regularly organize “peace marches” look much more humane and adequate political forces than Recep Erdogan, who is not going to make any concessions to the Kurds and, moreover, in his anti-Kurdish politics came to the actual "play on the arm" of the Islamic State. Erdogan's nationalist policy in modern conditions, when virtually independent Kurdish enclaves operate on the Turkish borders - Iraqi Kurdistan and Rojava, in addition to fighting against IS and receiving public support for the same European countries and the USA, can lead, if not to the collapse of a single Turkish state then to serious political destabilization. Fighting the Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, Erdogan actually turns into a tactical ally of the Islamic State, and this inevitably entails a confrontation not only with the Kurds, but also with the countries of the anti-ISIS coalition.
Photographic materials were used: http://news.bigmir.net/, http://www.rg.ru/, http://www.lragir.am/, http://rian.com.ua/, http: / /mylondondiary.co.uk/
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