Why is Turkey failing to fight terrorism?

For a country that has been fighting a terrorist organization for 30 years, it is really unacceptable to lose 24 soldiers in a single day to terrorism, as was the case in Hakkari’s Çukurca district on Wednesday.

Many years of fighting terrorism should mean an accumulation of enough knowledge and preparedness against terrorist attacks and enough lessons learnt from the thousands of previous attacks to eliminate any shortcomings. Yet, the killing of 24 soldiers in multiple simultaneous terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attacks indicates that Turkey is still far off from being a country that can skillfully combat terrorism and protect its soldiers. The Çukurca attacks have prompted many to question what went wrong in Turkey’s fight against terrorism, with some calling on the civilian authority to account for these deaths and the military’s negligence. Bugün’s Gülay Göktürk is of the belief that what Turkey should concentrate on now is how the PKK was able to carry out such a large-scale operation and the country’s security shortcomings instead of discussing the motivations of the terrorist organization or why it has escalated its violence now, since everything has been said regarding these issues. In the aftermath of the Çuıkurça attacks, Göktürk says she expected Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to appear before the public and make a statement that differed from those he has made in the past and explain and question how the PKK carried out such a coordinated assault that killed 24 soldiers. “Erdoğan should have informed us about this great military fiasco we are faced with. He should have explained how 250 terrorists sneaked into Turkey with heavy weapons over a period of two weeks, and he should have responded to claims that the infiltration of these terrorists was detected by thermal cameras two weeks ago. He should have explained what our intelligence organizations and unmanned aerial vehicles were doing when the PKK was carrying out the simultaneous attacks in Çukurca. He should have explained how the terrorists were able to flee without any casualties,” says Göktürk. She explains that the transition of the fight against terrorism from the military now means that it is the civilian authority that will have to answer to the nation in the aftermath of a such a military defeat. Zaman’s Mustafa Ünal also voices his disappointment and astonishment at security shortcomings that made the killing of 24 soldiers possible. “It is as if we are not living in an environment of terrorism. We have no security measures, no preparations. We are a country that loses lives to terrorism every day. We should be on alert,” says Ünal. He says when one thinks of the military’s shortcomings and the absence of necessary measures to prevent the attacks, the pain of the loss of 24 young lives grows more intense. Ahmet Altan of Taraf, a daily that has exposed the military’s shortcomings and negligence in a number of PKK attacks, thinks a military that does not see and hear of the days-long preparations by PKK terrorists has a very difficult job in being able to combat terrorism. “Certainly, mistaking female terrorists transporting heavy weapons on mules to be village women cannot be taken as a great skill in intelligence gathering,” he says, adding concerns that if the military does not take action to eliminate its shortcomings, Turkey will continue to lose its sons to terrorism. Source: todayszaman