The best answer to terror is to continue normalization
Let’s talk about whether there were any security shortcomings. But first let’s start talking about this point: The biggest security shortcoming is to be open to hostility from all corners and to push the forces with whom we have disagreements to the side of our staunch enemies.
It is to challenge the whole world saying, “All of you are against just me.” It is to make ourselves an isolated target by separating ourselves one by one from our allies.
The biggest security measure is to keep the enemy front as small as possible. It is to follow a policy of not pushing the friends with whom you disagree into the arms of your enemies.
It is to insist on not breaking good relations and to avoid the hostility of those whose friendship we could have won.
Shortcomings in intelligence and security are all crucial. But they come after this point. Let’s note that.
Terrorism struck the day we took steps to normalize our foreign policy. Is that a coincidence? Just as we start mending fences with Russia, just as with the help of United States we sign a peace deal with Israel, just as we enter a period of restoration of relations externally, a horrible massacre at Atatürk Airport hits us.
Isn’t there a terror organization that is worried about our rapprochement with Russia and our reconciliation with Israel? Isn’t this an atrocity by those who do not want normalization?
Isn’t there an aim to prevent our end to isolation by spreading the image of an unstable country by creating fear and horror? Who can say this is not an attack to block our new orientation in foreign policy?
This means we are going in the direction which worries those who think ill of us.
We do not yet know whether there is a direct link between the timing of this heinous attack and our normalization process. There is no concrete information to say that the massacre had specific motivations.
But is it possible to say there is no link whatsoever between them? Terror networks desire a Turkey that is in conflict with the world but also in conflict with itself. A Turkey at peace with itself and at peace with the world equals a loss for terrorism.
Foreign policy initiatives to break the political, economic and military siege frighten terror organizations.
For a deadly organization like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Turkey at peace with Russia is a direct threat.
They will attack our desire to normalize to break our hopes of extracting ourselves from the vicious circle.
The most efficient response to give to that is not to step back from our decisiveness about normalization, but to widen our alliances and strengthen our solidarity both at home and abroad. If Turkey is to be an island of peace and stability in a region turned into a hell of instability, everything depends on that.
The fundamental measure to end all these troubles and secure our lives is to strengthen our stability and domestic peace.
Catching terrorists one by one is not a measure that provides any guarantees.
A measure that provides guarantees is for the government and the opposition to engage in cooperation and dialogue against terror.
Can’t those who can come to terms with Israel and Russia find a way to reconcile on matters of life and death?
If this threat to our lives can’t unite us, what else will? The responsibility of taking a step belongs first to the government. The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) owes it to the nation to make sure that the initiative does not go unanswered.
