17 September 2001 , Copyright © Turkish Daily News
Orhan
Kilercioglu
Attack on United States and what it brings to mind
The horrifying attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon will never be forgotten as long as mankind is alive. The free world is inevitably going to think long and hard on these inhumane attacks and jointly take the necessary precautions. It is clear that terrorism has been replaced by "insidious war".
President Bush is both trying to relieve the anguish elt by the American people while at the same time having plans drawn up to punish he terrorists. Meanwhile, the decision by NATO to enact Article 5 (attack on one is an attack on all) gives both Bush and the American people significant support.
Turkey, which has suffered many long years of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatist terrorism, understands only too well what America is feeling right now and condemns those that carried out the attack.
But, what happens now? While the United States struggles to plug the gaps in its intelligence gathering apparatus, it is going to form an international commission and start making certain moves.
NATO recognized the threat posed by terrorism against its member countries many years ago. This was made official at the Washington Summit in 1999. It is clear that NATO figured out the lengths terrorists would go to many years ago and then incorporated this into its concepts. All the same, several NATO countries did not take the terrorism being waged against Turkey seriously and even avoided lending Turkey support to counter this terrorism.
Even though NATO recognized the PKK as a terrorist organization in is concepts, some member countries such as Germany, Italy and Greece went ou of their way to lend the PKK support quite openly and incurred the anger of the Turkish public.
In the wake of the attack on the United States, NATO has probably woken up to the seriousness of the situation, which is why it took the aforementioned decision. No doubt those countries that supported the terrorism against Turkey have got egg on their faces now.
Being both a Muslim and a secular country, Turkey has taken precautions against terrorism that are far more sensitive and serious than those taken by European countries.
The important question now is what is the world of the future going to look like as developments unfold?
The United States will carry out the necessary intelligence gathering then put together an international commission similar to the one during the Gulf crisis; it will act and punish the guilty. In order for this operation to succeed, the United States must be given full support.
As for the world of the future, it will see the free world cooperating well together against "insidious war". Intelligence will be the priority here. The most important aspect of this will be the identification and coordination at an international level of intelligence gathering and collating activities. In short, the formulation of an "international terrorism concept" that will determine the strategies to be used in combating terrorist organizations, and the bodies and states that support them.
It is obvious that terrorism has shown itself to be an "insidious war" and has proven the need to urgently formulate new concepts.
Headlines
| Commentaries
& Analyses | Domestic
Affairs | Foreign
Affairs
Economic
News | Sport
News | Feature
Stories | Weather
Forecast in Turkey
Economic
Indicators-Stock Market
