The worse is yet to come

Turkey has been passing through one of the worst and complicated periods of its history. Nationalist analysts say that ever since the republic was established on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, this country had never had such a “multilateral” and “concentrated” existential threat. Yet, the same analysts agree that the worst is probably yet to come.

It might be easy to claim that Turkey faced yet another crusade. However, most of the jackals attacking this country claim to be the most devoted followers of Islam. Political pundits still claim that the country was under a crusade attack because the entire trouble that Turkey has been living through was orchestrated with a war mentality by the West, particularly the U.S., British and Germans. It might appear as a comedy, or perhaps a tragicomedy, when such a perception is shared by people at the highest echelons of the state.

Indeed, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan conceded a while ago, this country has been in a “war atmosphere” for a long time. No one would perhaps like to use the words “Islam” and “terrorism” together. Yet the radical Islamist threat this country – and the world – has been facing for the past decade, has been so brutal and disgusting that no one can any longer describe it as an organization of disgruntled and angry Muslim young men. Refusing to refer to the group with its Turkish or English names because people would establish a connotation between it and the “good name of Islam” cannot solve the problem. If the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were being referred to with its Arabic acronyms “Daesh,” would it make any difference other than fooling ourselves? These men are Islamist terrorists and they are so brutal, that they behead people, burn them alive and even worse, they film such brutal executions and use them as propaganda.

There is a perception that the July 15 coup attempt was a turning point. President Erdoğan’s supporters believe that the failed coup staged by elements of the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) within the Turkish military marked the beginning of a very complicated and multilateral attack on Turkey. The separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), its Syria extension the People’s Protection Units (PYD), ISIL and other urban terrorist groups, ethnic, ideological, sectarian and religious terrorism that indeed might appear totally irrelevant from one another but acting as if in coordination from one remote control device boost the plot theories. How could these gangs who often have conflicting interests and objections develop such a “common front” against Turkey? The German deep state, the CIA, the British intelligence or all of them might be the answer to Turkey’s “eminent” self-declared terrorism experts and perhaps even intelligence executives.

Can we indeed accept that Turkey’s allies – economic, political and worse military – are behind such an existential threat giving Turks so much pain? Is Turkey indeed in a covert war? If so, who is Turkey’s enemy, the Islamist gang in Syria or Iraq or the PKK or PYD? Who is Turkey’s enemy?

If a lone assailant can enter an Istanbul nightclub, mercilessly fire on people non-stop for almost eight minutes and vanish into thin air, could it matter much to which organization that the murderer indeed belonged to? If he was a member of an unheard group instead of ISIL or PKK, would that ease the pain we have for our lost beloved ones? How did he enter the nightclub on New Year’s Eve despite the strict security measures taken all over Istanbul and in Turkey? Was he someone from the “inside” like the assailant of the Russian Ambassador?

So a covert war has become an overt war since the July 15 failed coup attempt. What are the claims?

 Turkey’s NATO allies are helping out terrorists attacking Turkey. The U.S., Britain and Germany are aiding, supporting and abetting terrorists in all possible ways. Americans particularly are captured red-handed; Turkey has video footages of the U.S. clearly giving arms to the PYD. Did President Erdoğan not say that Turkey could not accept the U.S.’ claims on “We are not sending arms, just ammunition.”

The Sevres syndrome or a second Sykes-Picot arrangement fears, disintegration paranoia – or whatever one might call it - Turks are very much worried that the “not so friendly allies” might be engaged once again to destabilize Turkey and redraw the boundaries in this region, including those of Turkey.

Were these Turkey’s hallucinations? Was this nonsense but just paranoiac assumptions? If that’s the case, the situation is very serious, as such a Turkey, while trying to take its own legitimate defensive measures, might indeed trigger a regional if not a new world war. If these are not just hallucinations or paranoiac perceptions but a real threat directed at the very existence of Turkey, the worst is yet to come.