Turkey, Terrorism and a Little Tourism

Turkey's relationship with terrorism is complex, to say the least. The state has long considered itself a victim of terrorism at the hands of the Kurdistan Workers Party (the PKK). But the testimony of 86 suspects connected with a network known as Ergenekon, which began at a trial earlier this week, may persuade many that terrorism is also coming from within the state. I learned more about both over the course of last week, which I spent working and touring in the country that prides itself on being both European and Asian.

My first stop was Ankara, Turkey's capital and, as of 2005, the home of the NATO sponsored training and research facility, the Center of Excellence - Defence Against Terrorism (NATO COE-DAT) dedicated entirely to terrorism issues. For two days, researchers, policy analysts and members of public health and defense communities from around the world met to explore how to prepare for a potential bioterrorism attack. My presentation was about the potential psychological and social consequences of bioterrorism, an issue which has only recently gained serious recognition.

The event combined NATO's stately forms of welcome and Turkish hospitality, and provided a wonderful opportunity to share experiences and accumulated knowledge across national borders. Participants came from virtually everywhere: Albania and Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyszstan Austria, Hungary, Italy, India, Morocco, Egypt, the U.S. and other countries.

One of the clearest messages coming from the presentations is that very little is known about what would distinguish a malicious attack using biological agents from a national outbreak of disease. Most countries treat planning for bioterrorism and a naturally occurring epidemic together.

After the workshop, I headed for Istanbul for a quick tour of the city's magnificent mosques and palaces. But at dinner with friends on my first evening there, the talk was all about Ergenekon--a murky network of powerful government, military and other elites accused of plotting a military coup. Turkey has charged some of the 86 accused now on trial with membership in a terrorist group.

When I asked my dinner companions whether they think the network is a terrorist group, they explained the charge as part of a wider political struggle between the currently ruling Justice and Development Party and the ultra-nationalist tendencies of Ergenekon's membership.

The Justice and Development party, led by Prime Minister Erdogan, is a moderate Islamist party with a free-market, democratic outlook. The ultra-nationalists take their political cue from Turkey's founder Kemal Ataturk (and are also called Kemalists), who envisioned an unyieldingly secular, not necessarily democratic state with an exclusively Turkish character. The conflict can be a tough one for Americans to get their heads around, since in the states we almost always associate Islamism with anti-democratic tendencies. Well educated liberals told me that they felt stuck between two incomplete choices. "We want a country that is secular and democratic, but that isn't a choice" said a young Muslim engineering student.

My friends made sure that I saw Istanbul's grandest sites: the unparalleled Topkape palace and its harem, where several generations of Ottoman sultans lived, and the famous Ayasofia, a Byzantine church turned mosque. But we also dipped into the less frenetic Military Museum, which tells a fascinating tale of Ottoman and later, Turkish conquest.

I admit I was not expecting an entire room dedicated to Turkey's battle with the Kurdistan Worker's Party, or PKK. Though there is no mention of Kurds or the PKK anywhere, the walls lined with photos of "our citizens murdered by the separatist terrorist organization" leave nothing to the imagination. A large number of photographs also detail Turkish military humanitarian operations to help Kurds wounded or displaced by PKK actions. Glass cases showcase captured materiel, mostly Soviet, although there are a couple of American guns, including an M-16 taken in 1998. In all, the message is clear: for Turkey, the ongoing battle with Kurdish separatists is a defining aspect of its own national identity.

_{Photo: Participants at the NATO COE-DAT Bioterrorism Workshop, November 2008}