Terrorism on the rise in Turkey

The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front of Turkey used fake documents to get into a prosecutor’s office in Istanbul on Monday and took prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage. Both terrorists of the organization were killed by law enforcers, failing to save Kiraz’s life. A terrorist threw two hand grenades and opened fire at the Security Directorate in Istanbul yesterday. She was shot dead after injuring two police officers and a civilian. Simultaneously, a district office of the Justice and Development Party in Istanbul was attacked by an armed man, who was successfully disarmed.

After the cascade of terrorist attacks, the police initiated Operation Scorpion against the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front, resulting in the arrests of 22 people in Antalya, who were planning a terrorist attack, and five in Izmir. The police searched through the Youth Federation and the cultural center in the Okmeydani District, arresting dozens of people. The operation continues.

Orkhan Gafarly, a member of the BILGE Center for Strategic Studies (Turkey), reminds that the events tend to occur 2-3 months ahead of elections. Terrorism was rising in 2007 and 2009. In the analyst’s opinion, the power outage all over Turkey was a cyber attack on the energy security system to destabilize the situation.

The expert noted that terrorists targeted the Justice and Development Party to undermine its political reputation, the investment climate and affect voters.

Togrul Ismail, a docent of the faculty of international relations at the TOBB University of Economics and Technology, emphasized that security services were partly to blame because they had been warned about the planned terrorist attacks. He doubts that the attacks will affect the electoral campaign, because Turkey was a country well aware of terrorism. The expert doubts that any social tensions will follow.

Ismail added that the police were actively preventing terrorism, though they had made many serious mistakes some weeks earlier, the attack on the Justice Palace being one of them. He noted that the police had been warned about terrorist activities planned in the context of the commemoration of Berkin Elvan, who was killed by gas grenades at Gezi Park.

The Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front of Turkey used fake documents to get into a prosecutor’s office in Istanbul on Monday and took prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage. Both terrorists of the organization were killed by law enforcers, failing to save Kiraz’s life. A terrorist threw two hand grenades and opened fire at the Security Directorate in Istanbul yesterday. She was neutralized after injuring two police officers and a civilian. Simultaneously, a district office of the Justice and Development Party in Istanbul was attacked by an armed man, who was successfully disarmed.After the cascade of terrorist attacks, the police initiated Operation Scorpion against the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front, resulting in the arrests of 22 people in Antalya, who planning a terrorist attack, and five in Izmir. The police searched through the Youth Federation and the cultural center in the Okmeydani District, arresting dozens of people. The operation continues.Orkhan Gafarly, a member of the BILGE Center for Strategic Studies (Turkey), reminds that the events tend to occur 2-3 months ahead of elections. Terrorism was rising in 2007 and 2009. In the analyst’s opinion, the power outage all over Turkey was a cyber attack on the energy security system to destabilize the situation.The expert noted that terrorists targeted the Justice and Development Party to undermine its political reputation, the investment climate and affect voters.Togrul Ismail, a docent of the faculty of international relations at the TOBB University of Economics and Technology, emphasized that security services were partly to blame because they had been warned about the planned terrorist attacks. He doubts that the attacks would affect the electoral campaign because Turkey was a country well aware of terrorism. The expert doubts that any social tensions would follow.Ismail added that the police were actively preventing terrorism, though it had made many serious mistakes some weeks earlier, the attack on the Justice Palace being one of them. He noted that the police had been warned about terrorist activities planned in the context of the commemoration of Berkin Elvan’s, who had been killed by gas grenades at the Gezi P