Are Terrorist Attacks in Turkey State-Sponsored?

by Stephen Lendman

Blaming recent terrorist attacks in Turkish cities on ISIS (or other non-state actors) is dubious at best. Erdogan supports Daesh. Why would it target a valued ally?

The latest incidents happened this week following earlier ones. An alleged suicide bomber killed 10 tourists in Istanbul's historic district, mostly German nationals. At least 15 others were injured.

Erdogan's "condemn(ation)" of what happened rang hollow. Angela Merkel blamed "international terrorism."

Former Obama State Department counterterrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin claimed ISIS is "determined to target more soft targets outside their areas…in Syria and Iraq" - without explaining what it could hope to gain strategically.

On Thursday, a huge blast largely destroyed a police headquarters building in Turkey's Diyarbakir province. At least five deaths were reported, dozens injured.

Kurdish PKK militants were blamed despite no evidence proving it. Reports claimed eight "terrorists" were killed in clashes with police following the bombing.

What's going on? Is Turkey especially vulnerable to terrorist attacks given their frequency in recent months? Or does responsibility lie elsewhere?

Were high-profile attacks in its cities state-sponsored? Erdogan supports terrorist groups while claiming to combat them. 

He heads a fascist police state. He's an international criminal with megalomaniacal aims, wanting political opponents eliminated, waging war on freedom, tolerating no internal critics, charging them with treason.

Putin calls him an "accomplice of terrorists" - aiding ISIS, Al Qaeda and other groups complicit with Washington, waging war without mercy on Turkish Kurds, hugely responsible for regional violence and instability.

He seeks unchallenged tyrannical powers under the mantle of presidential rule, wanting Ankara's constitution rewritten to oblige him.

Turkey enjoyed nearly 140 years of parliamentary governance - despite four military coups and execution of a prime minister. It never took steps to shift to iron-fisted one-man presidential rule.

Fear-mongering is longstanding US policy. Erdogan appears following the same strategy, aiming to overcome parliamentary opposition to his power-grabbing scheme - using alleged terrorist attacks to enlist support for iron-fisted presidential rule on the pretext of protecting national security.

As long as he remains Turkey's leader, tyranny will substitute for democratic freedoms. His next moves to solidify power remain to be seen.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.