Istanbul attack targets Turkey’s internal peace and foreign policy: Gov’t spokesperson

ANKARA

REUTERS photo

The deadly attack on an Istanbul nightclub in the early hours of the New Year aimed to create divisions between different lifestyles within Turkish society and to counter Turkey’s cross border operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş has said.  

“To carry out an attack at a moment when were anticipating the arrival of 2017, hoping that Turkey will have a better year in 2017 with health, peace and fraternity, aimed to say ‘we will continue to cause trouble for Turkey in 2017,” Kurtulmuş said on Dec. 2 after the weekly cabinet meeting. “But we are telling them that we will go into their lairs in 2017. We will give them the right answer; we will bring them to their knees with the will of God and the support of our people,” he added.

Kurtulmuş stated that the terrorist attack at Istanbul’s Reina nightclub, which killed 39 people, was a consequence of Turkey’s ongoing involvement in the Syrian war with Operation Euphrates Shield.
 
“It seems that the forces that are unable to digest our recent achievements in the field have led the terrorist act,” Kurtulmuş said, vowing Turkey’s determination to continue the operation.

“But whatever plan you make, Turkey is able to take all kinds of measures against terrorism both within the country and over the border. We are committed to continuing operations beyond the border to the point where there is no harm to Turkey from terrorist organizations,” he added.

Kurtulmuş also suggested that the underlining aim of the attack was to “cause social polarization” in the country based on different lifestyles and outlooks.

“These terrorists are trying to cause polarization between people through their lifestyles, through the differences of faith and through sects,” he said.

“But they will never prevail. The Turkish people are aware that whoever the terrorists attack, they target humanity, Muslimhood and the cultural accumulation of these lands,” he added.