'Turkey Started Treating Jihadists With Caution Only This Year'

The death toll from the terrorist attack on a Turkish airport in the city of Istanbul has climbed to 41 people. The country’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said early signs show that Daesh was behind Tuesday’s carnage. Radio Sputnik discussed the issue with Ilhan Tanir, Turkish analyst and correspondent for Cumhuriyet Turkish Daily.

“The attack indicates that it is ISIS [Daesh]. It is not confirmed yet because ISIS never confirms its attacks on Turkish soil. This gives Turkey extra disturbance  because ISIS militants take responsibility for attacks in other countries,” Tanir said.

He further said that there have been indications and news reports coming from US intelligence agencies suggesting that just a few weeks ago there were dozens of Daesh members going into Turkey.

“Turkey has been supporting the other opposition groups against ISIS [Daesh] and time to time Turkey shells from inside of Turkey to ISIS positions, so all these factors point to the same direction that some kind of ISIS attack was coming and unfortunately it came yesterday,” the journalist said.

He spoke about the Turkish government how according to him Turkish democracy has been back sliding for a while.

“Turkish authorities and security forces have been going against the opposition and the newspapers instead of taking all these efforts, time and energy in fighting the opposition, it is time for the Turkish security forces and establishment to go and focus on ISIS positions and networks within Turkey.”

The journalist further spoke about president Erdogan and how he has been ignoring this disturbing development.

“Now Erdogan is asking the West to get together and take a stance against ISIS networks. However, Erdogan has been ruling Turkey for decades and he is one person who has been overseeing Syria’s policy since 2011 and all the red alarms have been going on for at least couple of years, but the Turkish authorities only started taking some real caution after the Ankara attacks.”

Tanir said that instead of asking the West, Turkey should focus on fighting Daesh and according to him the country can do this because it was always a very safe country and it is still not too late.

“Turkey just needs to prioritize and understand that ISIS [Daesh] is the number one threat. Not the Kurds, not Turkish nor Syrian Kurds, but ISIS, al-Qaeda and al-Nusra [Front] groups. That is the real threat. Turkey needs to start taking real steps against these networks,” the journalist said.

The terrorist attack on a Turkish airport in the city of Istanbul killed 41 people. A total of 239 have been injured. Among the dead are 23 Turkish citizens and 13 foreign nationals.

The attack took place late on Tuesday when 3 gunmen entered the Ataturk airport and opened fire. After police and security officers struck back the militants blew themselves up.