Shortly before the last elections in Turkey in which the Justice and Development Party won a large majority, Turkish Chief of Staff Hilmi Ozkok warned "there are extremist elements in the country endangering Turkey." Ozkok was not refering to the radical Islamic groups but to the Justice and Development Party and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But mutual suspicion between the army and government gave way to cooperation mostly because of the war against Iraq. Neither the army nor the government supported Turkish participation in the war and the government decision not to let America open a front from Turkey was not met by opposition from the army. These two powerful bodies were responding to stormy public opinion opposed to the war.

The two powerful explosions that rocked the commercial, diplomatic and tourist center of Istanbul yesterday, killing at least 27 people and wounding more than 400 made clear that the radical Islamic groups were not impressed by Turkey sitting out the war. Turkish readiness to send troops now to help out (a decision canceled two weeks ago), its cooperation with the Americans, its membership in NATO and the Islamic government´s backtracking from a plan for pro-Islamic reforms in the country and distancing itself from the Muslim tag with which it ran for elections, and aspirations about joining the European Union, meaning the West - it all added up to enough of a reason for Turkish Islamic extremist groups to renew their activity.

First, they took action against the Turkish embassy in Baghdad, and then on Turkish soil. Turkey, say sources in Ankara, has become a soft target for Islamic groups because the feeling was the groups were smashed at the end of the 1990s after determined action by the intelligence and security services. "The focus of Turkish intelligence shifted to the Kurds and not toward overall Islamic terror," said a Turkish source. The assumption was that there was no more need for action against the Islamic groups because their leaders were dead or in jail.

When people speak of Islamic groups in Turkey, they mean the fear of infiltration by Ansar Al-Islam, an extremist group with ties to Al-Qaida, which operated in the Suleimana area in northern Iraq. They do not mean the Turkish Hezbollah or the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front, known by its Turkish acronym of IBDA-C.

"Operationally, it´s impossible now to disconnect these attacks from what is happening in Iraq," said a Turkish military source. "When terror groups use car bombs in Iraq and are successful with impressive operations, there´s no doubt they are inspiring other groups in other countries." (© Copyright 2003 Haaretz. 11/21/03)