Turkey: Islamic State Shifts Tactics with Istanbul Attack
| Publisher | Jamestown Foundation |
| Author | Alexander Sehmer |
| Publication Date | 8 July 2016 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 14 |
| Cite as | Jamestown Foundation, Turkey: Islamic State Shifts Tactics with Istanbul Attack, 8 July 2016, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 14, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/578629344.html [accessed 4 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Link to original story on Jamestown website
A suicide attack on Turkey's Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul on June 28 left at least 41 people dead and more than 230 injured. The attack appears to have been carried out by three suicide bombers who opened fire on passengers and bystanders before blowing themselves up. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed Islamic State (IS) for the attack (Hurriyet, June 29).
Although security measures at the airport, Europe's third busiest, seem to have limited the impact of the attack to a degree, there was little advance warning. Twenty days earlier Turkish intelligence reportedly warned state institutions of a planned IS attack in Istanbul - the airport on the list of potential targets - but that appears to have been the extent of it (Hurriyet, June 29).
Turkey's intelligence services are usually better informed, but in this case IS appears to have purposely involved fewer Turkish operatives. Akhmed Chataev, the one-armed Chechen militant and IS recruiter, is widely thought have masterminded the attack (see Militant Leadership Monitor, July 1). Turkey has arrested about 30 people in connection with the attack; at least 11 of them are from Russia's Caucasus region (YeniSafak, July 5).
IS has been circumspect about claiming its attacks in Turkey. After the devastating bombings last year in Suruc and Ankara, however, it now appears intent on targeting areas where it can expect high levels of foreign casualties, and in doing so attract greater international attention (al-Jazeera, October 10, 2015). In January, a suicide bomber blew himself up in Istanbul's Sultanahmet Square, a tourist hotspot. Eleven people died in that attack, all of them Western tourists (Hurriyet, January 27). In the attack on Istanbul airport, 19 of those killed were foreigners (Hurriyet, June 29).
Turkish media set the attack against the backdrop of Ankara's recent diplomatic efforts to mend ties abroad, including with Israel, Russia, and Egypt (Hurriyet, June 29). In fact, Turkey's diplomatic push is largely due to a weakening of its own position in the Middle East. It can no longer afford to have ambivalent relations with other powers while over the border the Syrian conflict rages and the region grows increasingly chaotic.
Moreover, the conflict between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which resurged following the collapse of a March 2013 ceasefire agreement, is reaching a level of violence not seen since the 1990s. A number of terror attacks - including a mortar attack on Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport in December, which left one person dead - have been claimed by a PKK-linked militant group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) (Hurriyet, December 23, 2015).
Both Turkey's conflict with the PKK - which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears willing to cultivate, hoping it will win him backing for planned presidential reforms - and the IS attacks have taken their toll. According to the 2016 Global Peace Index, Turkey is now ranked as the most dangerous country in Europe.
