Turkey must fight all terror groups without bias
A suspected child suicide bomber belonging to the Islamic State (IS) killing more than 51 people at a marriage party in the Turkish border town of Gaziantep on Saturday shows its brutality and senseless violence on innocent civilians. Though the jihadi outfit has not claimed its responsibility as yet, its sheer design and targeting of a celebration mostly attended by the Kurds has nearly confirmed its involvement. The terror experts believe that this may be a revenge attack on the Kurds as its militias are playing a significant role in the fight against the IS on the ground in the ongoing Syrian civil war. Precisely, the reported killing, which has been recorded as the bloodiest ever this year in Turkey, was not a random one and the IS had the intention to inflict maximum casualty on the supporters of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) who were there on the marriage. Besides, the IS in the past historically, even never claimed its responsibility for any terror assault in Turkey. One crucial reason may be its loss of substantial amount of territory to the Syrian Kurdish fighters in the northern part of Syria and this may have motivated it pound on the innocent civilians. It is a rare strategic attack as it was conducted in a marriage which was mainly attended by ethnically aware and politically sensitive Kurds. Therefore, hurling attack purely at a civilian occasion can have rippling effects over the embattled community of the Kurds who has been waging a prolong war for a homeland across three countries — Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The international community and particularly the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who just had a close shave from a botched coup in the last month, must be aware to what extent such attacks on socio-religious functions can sow disorder in the sharply divided society of Turkey on ethnic lines. Worrisome as many security experts say is that it may seriously affect the social fabric of the nation and the power hungry Erdogan will get one more opportunity to press his offensive state agencies against his suspected enemies.
The IS, currently being put under extreme pressure from all quarters-both by the Assad Army with the support of the Russian forces and the combined attack of the US-sponsored groups, mainly spearheaded by the Kurdish rebels. Therefore, the attempt to exploit ethnic and sectarian fault lines in Gaziantep which has seen a huge flow of migration of Syrian war refugees in recent years is not surprising. It can well be a frustrated act, both to retaliate against the advancement of the Kurdish rebels in north Syria and against Erdogan's attack on IS strongholds inside Syria. Whatsoever it may be, the IS must not be allowed anymore to occupy fresh territories and it is time now, the multilateral intuitions should launch a full-fledged war against it.