Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
March 18 2007
‘Global’ Terrorism: Main Reasons
Sedat Laciner
Sunday , 18 March 2007
I. Terrorism as an Indication of Social Problems
What is Terrorism?
Recently, with the additional effect of popularization, there has
been almost countless number of terrorism definitions. The common
point of all definitions was their description of terror as
`illegal’, `evil’ and `an unwanted phenomenon’. Its lawlessness and
its merciless attacks without differentiating between
innocent-criminal, civil-armed are listed as other characteristics of
terrorism. Violence and blood-shedding… Lurid acts… The list of
terror’s characteristics may further be extended.
Almost all evils and troubles are attributed to terror and
terrorists.
>From this point of view, the terror seems as if it is not belonging
to our world. As if it has come from far away, from a kind of `world
of darkness’… Hence, dark and ugly faces are preferred when
portraying terrorists. Most of the time, the terrorist’s face or
eyes are not even shown. Terror is described by extremely abstract
and contentious concepts like `dark’, `monster’, `devil’, `the
origins of all evils’, as if the people prefer to overlook the fact
that a terrorist is a human being as well and the terror is an act
which belongs to the human beings, if not humane.
To exemplify, the `terror monster’ speeches, which depicts terror as
a kind of `monster’, are frequently used. In Turkey, where there is
the `monster’ of everything, the Turks are used to such situations,
but reflecting terror as a kind of monster is also common among the
peoples of the world.[1] But presentation of a problem as a `monster’
is not peculiar to terrorism. Today, as it had been in the ancient
times, people tend to generate `monsters’ in case they face
unclarified, unsolved problems and it can be said that there are
monsters in modern times as much as it had been in the ancient times:
For instance, it is a common practice in Turkey to characterize
inflation, traffic accidents and drugs as `monsters’. However,
`monster’ is a creature that doesn’t exist and in this regard, the
human mind tends to explain the problems that are unresolved and
beyond the defined boundaries in this way. Describing the problems
like terror and drug as `monster’ or `devil’ distances, or even
alienates us from the problem at first. It makes us think that we are
facing a problem that we cannot solve or cope with. We are no more
the roots of the problem. Now, there is a `monster’ or `devil’ in the
root of the problem. In other words, there is an unknown, that is,
`something that doesn’t belong to us’. By classifying the concepts
that we don’t want to include into our world as `monster’, we
alienate ourselves from the problem, we, as individuals or the
society, oversee – or wish to oversee- the problem. In the case of
traffic monster, we construct a `traffic monster’ and blame the full
responsibility on it as if it was not us who make accidents, who fail
to build a good infrastructure, who make mistakes when driving etc.
By this way, we acquit our friends, our families, ourselves etc.
Other concepts that are most frequently used are `dark’, `evil’ and
`source of evil’. The terrorist organizations are always described in
`darkness’ (dark side of terror), and the terrorist leaders are
defined as the `dark masters of terror’. Defining terror as `evil’
is perhaps the most common way.[2] Furthermore, the politicians, the
most prominent of whom is the US President George W. Bush, the
diplomats and the media are sure that the terrorists are conducting
`evil affairs’ and that their leaders are `evil personalities’.
George W. Bush even went a step further and mentioned of an alliance
of `evil axis’.
That is to say, terror is the root of evil. It is evil by nature. It
can not be good. If it is good, it cannot be itself. When the
good-bad distinction is so sharp and certain, there are not many
options left in this case. The bad must be eliminated without any
attempt to discuss or understand it. There are no intermediary
options in this mentality. It is not sufficient to focus on the
causes of terror either. While the causes, sources, methods etc. of
terror are important, its elimination is essential and this can only
be achieved through its own mentality, in other words, violence.
Terrorism as a Social Symptom
The statements made after a terrorist attack are full of clichés,
just like there are clichés in its definition:
`They cannot attain anything through terror’, `we will win our
struggle against terror’, `those who opt for terror as a goal are in
a dead-end and are doomed to lose’.
However, the truth is not as simple as it is thought and said.
That the terrorists will lose may be correct to some extent. Those
who choose terrorism as a method will lose because they resorted to
terror for they thought that they were among the losers and that they
had nothing to lose. In other words, terrorist organizations are like
a `club of the weak’ at the beginning. If they could have been
physically or intellectually strong and could have accommodated
themselves within the system, then there had been little possibility
for them to choose terror. But if the subject in question is terror,
then we can not talk of winning or losing. Because terrorism neither
wins nor loses. Terrorism is not a rival that you can cope with. It
appears when certain conditions emerge and disappears as those
conditions are eliminated. But this disappearance is not forever. It
will not come back as long as you don’t invite it or you don’t
prepare the suitable conditions for it. So, if terrorism penetrates
your life, it is you who invite it, intentionally or unintentionally.
Terrorism is beyond the perceptions which we tried to summarize
earlier. It is not a monster, not a devil. It is not an enemy that
you can destroy or overthrow. Terrorism in fact is an indication, a
symptom. It is a clue that something is going wrong. Just like the
disorders of the body are revealed by `pain’, one of the `pains’ of
the social problems is terrorism. Especially a terrorist movement
which attains a massive scale demonstrates that there are significant
problems in the society. There is no one kind of pain in social
problems just like the pains in the body. Hence, terrorist activities
can not be grasped by a single formula. There are no fixed, unchanged
causes for terrorism. As the head ache, stomach ache or tooth ache
indicate different problems, kinds of terror similarly point to
different problems in the society. In this regard, struggle with the
terror itself is meaningless.
Just like obstinacy won’t help get rid of head ache, which is
impossible, the struggle against terror alone is not possible and
accurate either.
But this doesn’t mean let it happen…
Surely not!
We take a painkiller to stop the head ache. Similarly, there are
painkillers for terrorism:
The painkiller of terrorism is the preventive intervention of
security forces. Police or military operations alone are
interventions in the form of painkiller. But we must keep in mind
that none of the painkillers eliminate chronic diseases. They only
help to hide the pain and the problem. There may be more painful
aches after a comfortable night. If there is an illness in the
stomach, or a tumor in the brain, painkillers cause harm rather than
prove useful. They prevent the solution of the problem and delay the
diagnosis of the real causes. Similarly, dealing with terror only
through security forces not only leads us to oversee the problem but
makes the problem deeper and irresistible.
If we consider the body-society similarity, terrorism is a strong
symptom for understanding the problems within the society and these
problems may be solved more easily if diagnosed early. One thing to
keep in mind is that terrorism is the result of the mistakes made by
us, as the society. Attributing the crime to badness found in human
being’s nature or to an unknown creature and then to oppress violence
through violence by using security apparatus will not solve the
problem. The problem lies somewhere much deeper. It is perhaps the
political system, perhaps the economic system or perhaps the cultural
atmosphere. And most of the time, it has its roots in tens of fields.
In other words, terror stems from political, economic, social,
cultural or similar fields rather than security. Therefore, a
security-oriented approach to struggle against terror becomes
insufficient right from the beginning. A struggle approach lacking in
social, economic, political dimensions is in fact not a struggle, but
it delays and deepens the problem.
Struggle against Terror – Struggle against the Terrorist
We mustn’t forget that struggle against terrorists may not end
terror. Whatever the number of terrorists killed or whatever the
number of terrorist organizations undermined, terror may escalate.
Each terrorist killed may cause new terrorists to emerge. In this
regard, the priority in struggle against terrorism is not struggling
physically, by use of force. In eliminating terrorism, the priority
must be given to social needs. The public opinion, the accurate use
of the media and economic, social, cultural, educational means must
be implemented to eliminate terror. These sentences may sound cliché
or heroic. Or they may even be perceived as a `pigeon view’. There
may be criticisms like `will terror stop by opening up schools?’,
`will bombings stop by building hospitals?’. These reactions are
partially true. But the method we mentioned above was not implemented
properly. Unfortunately, not only in Turkey but also in other
countries, the fight was against the terrorists, not the terror.
Instead of true operations and preventive studies, bandages and
painkillers were applied. The struggle against terror was taken as a
contrast between `State-Terrorist’. However, terrorists and terror,
perhaps reflexively, worked for persuading the people rather than the
state. They did it sometimes elegantly, sometimes by use of the
social problems mentioned above. In addition, the terrorists are
quite content with the state’s perception of the problem as a
`State-Terrorist’ contrast. Because, by this way, terrorists succeed
to penetrate into a structure which they can slowly damage. The state
is pulled into a zone the terror prefers.
To summarize, when the states regard terror as a dark power to be
eliminated and fail to see the fact that it is indeed a reflection of
political and social problems, then terrorists will benefit that. As
a result of this view, the states focus on elimination rather than
solution. This approach is easily noticed when we look at especially
the US’ and Israel’s approach to terror in the Middle East. When
there are evil forces against you, then you rule out the alternatives
of persuading or changing them. For worse, even the problem can not
be understood clearly. As a result of this categorical approach,
terror is considered to be uniform. However, as there is no uniform
terror, there are also actors which sometimes use terror as an
instrument, but which are not terror organizations
characteristically.
II. The Global Terror and Terror in the Middle East
If we are to apply our approach that `Terror can not be groundless.
Terror is the extension of political, economic and social problems’,
which we tried to detail above, to the contemporary terror incidents,
we will see the following setting:
First of all, the most significant reason of terror’s occupying such
an important space today is the ignorance of the problem and even its
perception by some countries as a tool in their foreign policies.
During the Cold War, the communist and capitalist blocs supported the
terrorist actions against each other, and they behaved on the basis
of ideology even when they were classifying the terrorist
organizations. Marxist terrorist organizations were regarded by
Moscow as liberation movements against imperialism, whereas the US
regarded capitalist, right-wing groups as resistance movements
against communism. Turkey was the country which had been most
negatively-affected country from this view. During the 1960s and
1970s, the leftist terrorist organizations in Turkey were supported
by Russia and their allies like Syria and Bulgaria. If the terrorist
organizations of the period are examined, it will be easily
understood that it was impossible for these organizations to smuggle
enormous amounts of arms and ammunitions into Turkey without outsider
assistance. Similarly, the Armenian terror, focusing on Turkey’s
missions abroad, was supported by Russia and some other countries.
The Armenian terrorist organization, ASALA, had conducted actions in
all continents more successfully than even the most prominent
intelligence agencies, and it had not been caught in almost any of
these incidents. Even the perpetrators of the assassinations carried
out in France, Greece, US, Switzerland and in many other countries
have not been found. None of the terrorist organizations can be so
successful without getting the support of a state.
The right-wing terrorism in Turkey had also been backed by the West.
Although the rightist terrorist organizations seemed to be
established to fight against communism, the executive assassinations,
which prepared grounds for military interventions in the most
sensitive periods of Turkey, had been carried out by this kind of
terrorist cells.
When the terrorist organizations in Turkey are examined, it can be
noticed without doubt that they are supported by some states or their
extensions, or they have found support circles within the Turkish
state. Their second characteristic is their income generation through
illegal means such as drug and human trafficking, usurpation, theft
and kidnapping. It has been revealed that some states turn a blind
eye to their actions and finance the terrorist organizations in this
way. For instance, PKK’s drug trafficking took place as the Syrian
authorities went unnoticed to this action for a long time. PKK still
controls the 75% of the drugs smuggled into Europe.
Another example of not paying enough attention to terrorism and its
use as a foreign policy tool has been the PKK camps in Northern Iraq.
As known, PKK is recognized as a terrorist organization in the US,
the EU and many other countries. The English intelligence agency MI5
even described PKK as `the most dangerous organization in the world’.
Despite this situation, PKK can establish armed camps, associations,
foundations etc. in the US-controlled Iraq. Today, most of the
terrorist operations conducted against Turkey are originating from
the US-occupied Iraq. The US, despite its pledges and Turkey’s
insistence, is not closing down the PKK camps and associations. The
US defines its war against al-Qaeda as the war on terror and she gets
Turkey’s support for that, but her inaction against the Kurdish
terrorism raises doubts.
When the terror events in the Middle East are examined in general, it
will be understood that the events are not planned by a few evil
personality, but are the extension and continuation of the policies
pursued in the region. The US had been the leading country supporting
Taleban in Afghanistan. The US, together with Pakistan, had seen
Afghanistan as an important ally against Iran. However, Afghanistan
was a base for terrorists in that period too. She was at the heart of
drug-trafficking and was the heaven of the extremities. It was the
same Afghanistan which was supported and occupied by the US.
Similarly, one of the countries which supported Hamas in its first
years was Israel. The Jewish state supported the Islamists with the
hope that they would balance al-Fatah but now they blame even the
Hamas-led government, which was elected by one of the most democratic
elections in the Arab world, as `terrorist’. Hence, one of the
primary and most significant causes of the terror in the Middle East
is the inconsistent and double-standard terror approaches of the
states.
Secondly, `the Arab world’ has been continuously experiencing a
humiliation. The Arab states, since their foundations, have faced
imperialist interventions, have been unable to unify and cooperate.
When they attempted to cooperate, this was obstructed intentionally
because of the fears that it might turn against the West. The Arab
states, repeatedly humiliated in Palestine, handed over Israel not
only their territories but also their self-confidence as well.
Following the Palestine disaster, Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and its
`liberation’ by the Western powers have become another shame. Later
on, the attack on Iraq, occupation of the country and murder of more
than 100.000 Arabs during the occupation have further belittled the
Arabs. The maltreatment against the Arabs in Ebu Ghraib during
occupation and the silence of the Arab world to the scandal have been
another source of shame. When Israel’s attitude of not recognizing
the borders is added to all of these, the Arabs totally lose all
their hopes. None of the Israeli actions have even been condemned by
the Security Council. The reaction of Israel, destroying the
infrastructure of the Gaza Strip as a response to the kidnapping of
her soldier, is considered to be `temperate’ by the countries like
the U.S., England and Canada. Whatever the number of civilians killed
by Israel, she still asserts that she is fighting against terrorism.
As a result, the Arab world widely believes that Israel is the
`golden child’ of the West. The Arab peoples have reached the
conclusion that Israel could conduct any kind of aggression and
humiliation, but these acts could not be stopped by the Arab states.
In other words, the Arabs have finally come to a point of despair.
The list of the reasons of despair and victimization feelings may
further be extended. But more important than those is the relative
backwardness of the Arab countries in many fields like education,
health services, economy, politics and many more. As even for the
access to the internet, which is one of the major indications of
development, the Arabs lag far behind the African countries.
Regarding the economic integration in the world markets, the least
successful region is the Arab world. Hence, another source of this
victimization feeling in the Arab world is this backwardness.
In short, the overwhelming majority of Arabs have feelings of despair
and victimization regarding their relations with the West and Israel.
For the masses which have nothing to lose, it is much more easier to
rely on extremities.
Not only the Arabs but also Muslims allover the world think that the
West is not treating justly and that the Muslims can not defend their
rights through legitimate and legal ways. What is going on in
Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Bosnia further
strengthened this thought. In this context, the Muslim world needs a
miracle to trust the West again and to disclaim the use of
illegitimate ways. If not, neither the terror nor the instability
will end in the region.
The much needed miracle for the Muslim world can be Turkey’s full
membership in the EU. The Turkey’s almost half-a-century endeavor for
EU membership is confronted by a religious and racist resistance in
Europe. Not only Turkey but also the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus faces a similar discrimination. Some groups in Europe are
struggling to maintain the EU as a Christian club. A similar
discrimination was also experienced by Azerbaijan. Although 20% of
her territories is still under Armenian occupation, the EU and the
U.S. has long criticized and even punished Azerbaijan instead of
Armenia. In this regard, it is hard to say that religiosity in Europe
is less influential than in the Muslim world. For worse, the
religious groups in the West are influential enough to determine the
policy behaviors of their states. In such an atmosphere, it is
inevitable for Christian and Jewish religious radicalism to face
resistance and to see its counterpart in the Muslim world. Unless the
West acts consistently and justly towards the rest of the world, it
is impossible to stop terror in the Muslim world. The best way for
the West to show its goodwill is to facilitate Turkey’s EU membership
and to behave not as a Christian club but as a union defending
universal values. Turkey’s EU membership will significantly
contribute to the elimination of polarization between the parties.
Turkey, especially together with Turks, Arabs, Iranians and other
Muslims numbering over 15 million in the EU, can be the voice of the
Muslims in the world governance. By this way, the miracle needed by
the Arabs and Muslims would be realized and the West, perhaps for the
first time, would treat fairly and justly towards the East. In this
case, Turkey, as part of both the West and the East and Islam, will
be the first step for a sound relationship. This process and Turkey’s
EU membership will be a good response to the fundamentalist mentality
of al-Qaeda.
Another instrument to stop terrorism in the Middle East is definitely
regional integration. This integration doesn’t have to be initiated
in the most problematic areas. If countries with relatively less
problems are able to cooperate and integrate, the wealth will soon
spread to the neighborhoods and will eliminate the regions of
terrorism and instability. Turkey and Egypt assume great roles in
this case. It takes only one hour by flight from the south of Turkey
to the north of Egypt. Moreover, the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus is between these two countries. As the two major powers of the
Muslim world, the rapprochement between Turkey and Egypt will expand
to other fields. The two countries also need a closer cooperation
internationally. In addition to that, a cooperation channel to be
established along Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt will considerably
contribute to a peace settlement in Palestine. Similarly, a
cooperation and integration channel must also be established between
the Gulf countries and the other countries of the Middle East. Also,
cooperation must be set up between Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India.
The lack of connection between the markets increases the costs in
each country, and causes lack of communication in political field.
The region can attain from a conflict-oriented mentality to a
cooperation-oriented mentality only through economic means.
By the same token, economic means should be used more in Palestine.
Actually, the Palestine problem is probably one of the easiest
conflicts to be resolved. It is easy to see that a few billion
dollars of investment in Palestine and its integration into the
Israeli economy will strike a heavy blow to terror. The problem
arises from Israel’s conflict-oriented approach. Despair,
humiliation, unemployment, lack of education and poverty will
definitely produce terror.
III. Leading Reason Of Global Terror: Gap In Representation Of
Greater Middle East
The world is looking for the reasons of the Islamist (religionist)
extremism and terrorism. The 7/7 bombs exploded in London provide
very useful clues about the reasons:
The bombs exploded in the tube stations and in the bus once again
proved how close the Western people to the terror. When a few of the
bombs exploded everyday in Baghdad hit London, a hidden state of
panic aroused in every country from Canada to France. The metro
stations were abandoned, the routine controls in the airports turned
in to extra ordinary ones. After the bombs the confusion and the
facial expression of British Prime Minister Tony Blair asking `Why
London’ is still fresh. After the bombings during the G8 Summit in
Scotland, Tony Blair made statements taking the G8 leaders and the
other guest leaders near him. Thus `entire world is against terror’
message was wanted to give. The support for Blair was great: The
leaders of the six richest countries in the world (USA, France,
Germany, Canada, Japan and Italy); Russia (included to G8 because of
its military and political might); India; China; Mexico and Republic
of South Africa with their relative weights in the world affairs even
they are not richest or most powerful, furthermore the President of
the EU Commission, President of the IMF, President of the World Bank
and the Secretary General of the UN supported Blair. `The bosses of
the world’ were altogether in the real sense. The interesting thing
was the absence of a Muslim leader in that frame. While the most
important problems of the world were experiencing in the Muslim
countries (Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and Chechnya etc.), there
were no Muslim leader among the rulers of the world and the ones
asked for their opinions. There was no Middle Eastern voice in the G8
meeting and the bombs exploded. The territories that could not be
represented through the legal ways, spoke through illegal ways (read
through terror). Busses and metro stations were blown up. The leaders
of the world were confused. They immediately tried to give unity
messages. However the frame that was taken in the G8 Summit was
vividly indicating the clear democratic deficit in the global
governance.
As it is known, the top level political decisions on global problems
are undertaken in the UN Security Council. We should admit that
there is no democracy there. The five permanent members (USA, Russia,
China, France and Britain) have extensive competence including right
to veto. There is no Muslim country among these. Interim members are
sometimes included and some are currently Muslim countries (Libya and
Yemen) by hazard, but their representation power is close to zero.
The main Muslim states, notably Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan or
Iran, are not member of the Security Council. Turkey could manage to
become the member of the Council only once and it was a half term
membership.
The representation deficit is at the exorbitant in the other global
bodies too. Far East, America as a continent, Europe and even Africa
is highly represented in the bodies from the IMF to the World Bank;
however Muslim countries are not represented or hardly represented
without representation powers.
A similar occasion is also relevant for the European Union (EU). 150
million Muslims live in Europe including the former Soviet Republics.
More than 15 million Muslims live in the EU countries. With Turkey,
TRNC, Azerbaijan, Bosnia Herzegovina and Albania the number of Muslim
countries in the (classical) European continent amount to five. The
number of Muslim population in Bulgaria is more than the populations
of a number of EU members (like the Greek part of Cyprus, Luxemburg
and Malta). The Turkish population in the EU members exceeds the
total populations of a number of EU member states. However there is
no Muslim member state in the EU and it seems there will not be in
the foreseeable future. Shortly even they constitute one fifth of the
world population, even they are at the heart of the most important
problems of the world, even they have the possession of the almost
all of the world’s energy resources; the Muslim peoples are not
represented in the global governance. A gigantic geography from
Central Asia to North Africa, from Black Sea to Indonesia is regarded
as none existing. The will of these peoples is simply ignored. The
decisions taken in London, Washington and Moscow are imposed on these
peoples. Extremely radical decisions including invasion are taken and
implemented on Palestine to Afghanistan, without asking to the
peoples of the regions. Even the views and suggestions of Turkey as
an `allied’ country of the West are not taken in to consideration.
And if a few of the bombs exploded in the region, explodes in London
or New York, the `entire world’ confuses, because the Western world
supposing itself as the `entire world’.
Can Turkey Represent the Region?
Turkey could be claimed as the sole country to fill the
representation deficit of the Middle East and Islamic world in
governance of the world, because it has a lot of common points with
`both of the worlds’. Leading by the United States some Western
leaders are already trying to develop Turkey as a model for this
geography. However Turkey should not be a model but the voice of the
region in the West and the voice of the West in the region. In other
words, Turkey should represent the region, not only impose anything.
It should not be only an inspiring model for the East but a model
for the West in the relations with the East. Also there is no need
for etiquette like `moderate Islam’ or any other change to manage
this. The important thing is to give importance to the region’s
peoples and to be their voice as they are. The first thing to do is
not moderating or softening the understanding of the region. This may
be an objective for the future. In this regard countries like Turkey,
Egypt and Pakistan need stronger positions among the `bosses of the
world’ that they could make their voices heard or extremists like
Osame Bin Laden will continue this mission.
Turkey has advantages beyond `representation’ in the representation
of the region. Turks are one of the remarkable examples in history
who could manage to make different civilizations live together under
Seljuk and Ottoman rules. As the biggest `Muslim’ economy and the
most powerful military and political force in the region Turkey’s
permanent membership in the UN Security Council, full membership to
the EU, higher representation in the IMF, the World Bank and other
institutions will provide a stronger representation of the region as
well as quite new ideas and suggestions meaning vision of Turkey that
could not be proposed by China Russia or Britain will be brought to
the governance of the world.
In summary; in the G8 Summit where no Muslim leader had any seat,
Osame Bin Laden had his seat by force of arms. If more Muslim leaders
have their places in the world governance, murderers and terrorists
will have more difficulties to occupy the world agenda.
In this framework, the Muslim countries and the Eastern countries
should make pressure on the West to listen to the region. If the rest
of the world can make co-operation to persuade the West to be more
reasonable, the world could be a more peaceful place.
18 March 2007
JTW
———————————————— ————————
[1] For examples, see: `Zarkawi The Terror Monster: But Does He
Really Exist?’, Arab News, 26 October 2004; Lori Sturdevant, `The
Terrorism Monster Under Our Kids’ Beds’, Star Tribune (MN), 13
September 2001; Amir Taheri, `Last gasp of the Monster of Islamist
Terrorism’, The Times, 20 May 2003; Govind B. Mishra, And America
Attacked: Monster of Terrorism in 21 Century, (New Delhi: Akansha,
2002); Ýhsan Çaralan, `Özel Savaþ: Hile Ýle Yönetme Sanatý’ (Special
War: The Art of Governing by Fraud), Evrensel, 20 October 2001.
[2] Sean Hannity, `Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism,
Despotism, and Liberalism’, (Regan Books, 2004); `Terrorism and
Evil’, Special Issue, Wickednes.net, e-journal, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2003.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress