To Whom It May Concern,
A deadly explosion in the capital city of Turkey, as is known, killed at least six and injured more than eighty people. According to the Turkish state run Anadolu news agency, the bomb attack was carried out on Istiklal Avenue, a civilian area typically crowded thoroughfare in Istanbul popular with tourists and locals. No party has yet claimed the responsibility for the painful attack. Turkish officials indicated it as an act of terrorism and suspected the Kurdish groups such as the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG (People’s Defense Units) but these groups denied any role in the latest bombing. Investigations into the explosion are going on and Turkey has ensured that the perpetrators would be punished.
It is important to prevent such attacks to save the lives of civilians. But it remains unclear whether it is possible to do so in Turkey in the future. No doubt, such terrorist attacks are carried out not only in Turkey but also in many other countries including the United States and European countries. But their complete prevention has yet to be achieved because of the nature of such attacks, the difficulty in identifying the threat of potential attacks and potential attackers always, attackers are sometimes heavily armed, perceived and/or real benefits of creating terror, racially and ethnically repressive state actions, the involvement of state actors (at least on some occasions) in helping to carry out such attacks in the territories of other countries and many other causes.
The conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish groups, probably one of the main causes of such attacks, is to be noted here. No doubt, Turkey has an arch rivalry with the PKK and the YPG and fighting has been continuing between Turkey and these groups for a long, According to available sources, Turkey was hit by a series of deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017 by the Islamic State group and outlawed Kurdish groups. A bomber’s attack on the same street in 2016 killed five people and injured more than thirty and the Atatürk airport attack in 2016 killed 45 people. The bombers of such attacks, according to available sources, had links to these non-state armed groups.
But it is desired that such attacks are neither carried out in civilian areas nor civilians are killed by such attacks. In this respect, developing an effective mechanism for detecting and preventing the threats and plots of potential attacks and providing effective protection are undeniably very important. But putting emphasis on the talks-based mitigation of disputes between the state party and non-state armed groups may be an effective means to prevent such attacks. Moreover, non-state armed groups should avoid attacking civilians. It is clear that such attacks kill civilians and can help to realize the goal of creating terror but mostly do not lead to any remarkable achievement over the state party.
Amir M Sayem
Chief Editor
Dhaka Opinion Magazine
