Al-Qaida, ‘war on terror’ and Turkey

Abstract

The new wave of international terrorism gained strength in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, threatening not only the USA and its allies but also, as seen in the latest incidents, a significant part of the world. Continuing al-Qaida attacks signify the vulnerability and weakness of defence, security and intelligence systems in the face of the new international terror. The terror network has created an image of a postmodern virtual state. We argue that it has been shaped by a common ideology rather than in physical terms. Thus it is necessary to develop novel approaches. In this article we discuss Turkey's struggle against the new terror, underlining the fact that it is a Muslim majority state and has lively and dynamic Islamic traditions and different shades of Islamic belief. This situation makes the discussion more interesting, focusing on the position, perception, difficulties and struggle of a Muslim state with a democratic and secular mode of government vis-à-vis an allegedly Islam-inspired international terror network. There is an urgent need to develop an international terror strategy to counter terror attacks against Turkey, Britain, Egypt and others. We underscore the vital requirement of reconciling the macro-schemes and priorities of the global ‘war on terror’ with the national conditions and needs of the other countries involved in the struggle against the terror network.

Notes

1 For more on this theoretical formulation, see B Buzan & R Little, ‘Beyond Westphalia? Capitalism after the fall’, Review of International Studies, 25 (5), 1999, pp 89 – 104.

2 See Al-Ta'sil li-Mashru'iyyat ma Jara li-Amrika min Tadmir (The Base of Legitimacy for the Destruction in the USA), at http://tawhed.ws/r?i = 849.

3 MA Sayyid, ‘Mixed message: the Arab and Muslim response to terrorism’, Washington Quarterly, 25 (2), 2002, pp 177 – 190.

4 During Bulent Aras's extensive interviews in Cairo in January 2006, the students of Cairo University, who define themselves as Islamist, criticised the terrorist attacks as inhumane, immoral and non-Islamic.

5 See Q Wiktorowicz, ‘A genealogy of radical Islam’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 28 (2), 2005, pp 75 – 97.

6 Al Qaeda statements continuously repeat this threat. For example, see Agence France Presse, ‘Al-Qaida urges more attacks, Al-Zawahiri tape’, 21 May 2003, at http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003.html. For a similar approach to al-Qaida's promise to the potential recruits to its terrorist network, see M Abrahms, ‘Al-Qaida's miscommunication war: the terrorism paradox’, Terrorism and Political Violence, 17 (4), 2005, pp 529 – 549.

7 For a comprehensive study and detailed explanation of the communication and relationship between al-Qaida and its followers, see J Schanzer, Al-Qaida's Armies: Middle East Affiliate Groups and the Next Generation of Terror, Washington, DC: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2004.

8 For a similar approach, see X Raufer, ‘Al Qaeda: a different analogy’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 26 (6), 2003, pp 391 – 398.

9 See G Weimann, Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New Challenges, Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 2006; M Conway, ‘Terrorism and the internet: new media—new threat’, Parliamentary Affairs, 59 (2), 2006; M Basile, ‘Going to source: why al Qaeda's financial network is likely to withstand the current war on terrorist financing’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 27 (3), 2004, pp 169 – 188; and TL Thomas, ‘Al Qaeda and the internet: the danger of cyberplanning’, Parameters, 33 (1), 2003, pp 112 – 124.

10 B Mendelsohn, ‘Sovereignty under attack: the international society meets the al Qaeda network’, Review of International Studies, 31 (1), 2005, p 61.

11 ‘Bin Laden lashes out at the UN, US attacks in taped messages’, cnn, 3 November 2001.

12 M Czwarno, ‘Misjudging Islamic terrorism: the academic community's failure to predict 9/11’, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 29 (7), 2006, p 657.

13 See M Sageman, Understanding Terror Networks, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004; B Hoffman, ‘Al Qaeda, trends in terrorism, and future potentialities: an assessment’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 26 (6), 2003, pp 429 – 442; J Stern, Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill, New York: HarperCollins, 2003; and M Mousseau, ‘Market civilization and its clash with terror’, International Security, 27 (3), 2003, pp 5 – 29.

14 The terror network is aware of this fragility and aims to widen the gap between the USA and its allies. The Global Islamist Media Front (gimf), the internet-based propaganda apparatus of al-Qaida, has propagated this perspective. For details, see http://www.tawhed.ws/r?i = 2633.

15 For related analysis, see http://www.stopwar.org.uk/new/news/index.htm.

16 R Paz, ‘From Madrid to London: al-Qaida exports the war in Iraq to Europe’, prism Occasional Papers, 3 (3), 2005.

17 J Freedland, ‘Tread more carefully’, Guardian, 27 July 2005.

18 G Hinsliff, ‘Blair: we cannot change course’, Observer, 17 July 2005.

19 S Milne, ‘It is an insult to the dead to deny the link with Iraq’, Guardian, 14 July 2005.

20 OB Ladin, ‘Message to US’, Aljazeera.Net, 18 October 2003, at http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8E8EA580-943C-4FBF-9ABD-21B47627FECD.htm.

21 Quoted in B Hoffman, ‘The changing face of al Qaeda and the global war on terrorism’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 27 (6), 2004, p 554.

22 See bbc News, 7 October 2001.

23 E Karmon, ‘The bombing of synagogues in Istanbul’, Institute for Counter-Terrorism, International Terrorism Articles, 15 November 2003, at http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid = 502.

24 ‘Zawahiri hails Zarqawi in new video’, Aljazeera.Net, 24 June 2006, at http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E7B73299-ACA0-4B05-95B3-C97EBEA64C5E.htm.

25 R Cakir, ‘Yeni 11 Eylül'ler ve 15-20 Kasım'lar Kapıda’, Vatan, 11 August 2006.

26 For the full survey, see International Strategic Research Organisation (isro), ‘isro Turkey terrorism perception survey’, 3 August 2005, at http://www.turkishweekly.net/pdf/USAK_ORG_UK-TerrorismPerceptionSurvey.pdf.

27 The pew Global Project, ‘Attitudes, support for terror wanes among Muslim publics, Islamic extremism: common concern for Muslim and Western publics’, 17-Nation pew Global Attitudes Survey, released 14 July 2005, at www.pewglobal.org.

28 Wiktorowicz, ‘A genealogy of radical Islam’, p 94.

29 See N Berkes, Türkiye'de Çağdaşlaşma, Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2004.

30 For more on this issue, see B Aras & O Caha, ‘Fethullah Gulen and his liberal Turkish Islam Movement’, meria Journal, 4 (4), 2000, p 9.

31 M Heper & Ş Toktaş, ‘Islam, modernity, and democracy in contemporary Turkey: the case of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’, The Muslim World, 93 (2), p 157.

32 The equal and just legal framework does not prevent violent acts occurring against non-Muslims and non-Sunni sects, as evidenced by the 6 – 7 September Events in 1955 and the Thrace Incidents in 1934. For further information regarding these violent incidents directed at non-Muslim minorities, see Ş Toktaş, ‘Citizenship and minorities: a historical overview of Turkey's Jewish minority’, Journal of Historical Sociology, 18 (4), 2005, pp 394 – 429. There had also been violent cases against non-Sunni sects, such as the Maraş Events in 1978, during which Sunnis attacked Alevi neighbourhoods in the southern Anatolian city of Maraş. There is a discussion on some other examples of these incidents below.

33 Ibid, p 158.

34 S Mardin, ‘Turkish Islamic exceptionalism yesterday and today: continuity, rupture and reconstruction in operational codes’, Turkish Studies, 6 (2), 2005, pp 145 – 165.

35 JT Nugent, ‘The defeat of Turkish Hizballah as a model for counterterrorism strategy’, meria Journal, 8 (1), 2004, p 6.

36 See for a comprehensive study, E Erdoğan, ‘The missing element: Turkish public opinion towards the US’, Turkish Policy Quarterly, 4 (1), 2005.

37 For example, a recent film, Valley of the Wolves, which is based on a real incident involving the arrest of Turkish Special Forces in Sulaymaniyah in July 2003, has drawn considerable attention in Turkey. In the film a Turcoman Iraqi leader complains that Americans granted the mountains to the Kurds, gave the desert to the Arabs and kept the oil for themselves. The film is full of American torture and abuses in Iraq. There is also a Jewish American doctor who harvests organs from the bodies of dead Iraqis to send to the USA, Israel and Britain. Three Turks teach a lesson to the American hawks in Iraq and support Iraqi people against unjust abuses and torture. In addition, a science fiction novel named Metal Storm (Metal Fırtına in Turkish) has been on of the best-seller list. This book imagines whole-scale warfare between the USA and Turkey after a military clash in northern Iraq.

38 ‘An unfamiliar spectre rises: Turkish anti-semitism’, The Economist, 5 August 2006, p 46.

39 New York Sun, 8 June 2005. Umur Talu, a prominent journalist on a liberal Turkish daily, Sabah, blamed the Israelis for forgetting their victimisation and acting like racists, Nazis and fascist killers of the past. U Talu, ‘Kurban ile Cellat’, Sabah, 3 August 2006. Another writer in an Islamist newspaper, Selahaddin Çakırgil, argued that Hitler remains innocent if one considers the crimes of the Israelis. He also holds Israel and the USA responsible for the rising anti-semitism around the world. S Cakirgil, Vakit, 3 August 2006.

40 For more information on this group, see S Mirzabeyoglu, Basyucelik Devleti: Yeni Dunya Duzeni, Istanbul: ibda Publications, 1996; and F Bulut, Islamci Orgutler, Istanbul: Tumzamanlar, 1994.

41 Y Fighel, ‘Great East Islamic Raiders Front (ibda-c)’, The Institute for Counter-Terrorism International Terrorism Articles, 1 December 2003, at http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid = 504.

42 ibda-c continues its activities by publishing a journal called Kaide (the Turkish translation of Qaida, which means base). They also organise riots and protests. See ‘ibda-cŞimdi El-Kaide Cephesinde’, at http://www.haber7.com/haber.php?habe_id = 104877, accessed 29 December 2006.

43 Karmon, ‘The bombing of synagogues in Istanbul’.

44 Some analysts prefer to use Turkish Hizballah as the name of this group.

45 B Aras & G Bacik, ‘The mystery of Turkish Hizballah’, Middle East Policy, 9 (2), 2002, p 149.

46 We have benefited from a book chapter by one of the authors of this article in our discussion on Hizballah. See B Aras & G Bacik, ‘The Turkish experience in the struggle against Islamic extremism’, in Timo Hellenberg & Kelly Robins (eds), Roots and Routes of Democracy and Extremism, Helsinki: Aleksanteri Institute, 2006, pp 263 – 285.

47 S Cağaptay & E Uslu, ‘Hizballah in Turkey revives’, winep Policy Watch, 25 January 2005.

48 EF Keyman, Değişen Dünya, Değişen Türkiye, Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi Universitesi Yayinlari, 2005.