Hürriyet Daily News published an article by Serkan Demirtas entitled 'Is the Reyhanlı attack just a beginning?'
"Hours after the tragic terrorist attack that hit the town of Reyhanlı in Hatay province on the Syrian border and killed 51 Turkish citizens, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu drew attention to the timing of the explosions in an obvious reference to the international efforts to topple the Bashar al-Assad regime. He also echoed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s assessment linking the attack to the government’s initiative to solve the Kurdish issue," the article begins.
"Amid growing concerns that chemical weapons have started to be used in Syria and calls for increasing pressure on Damascus through an international conference bringing Russia and the United States together, the attack in Reyhanlı has multiple messages for the Turkis government and the international community," the author writes.
"The core of these messages (conveyed by Damascus as Turkish officials openly said they have evidence that the attack was organized by the al-Assad regime) is related with Turkey’s Syria policy. Coming nearly three months after the Cilvegözü (a border gate on the Turkish-Syrian frontier) attack that killed 17 people, the Reyhanlı explosions, however, reflect that the power behind the attack wanted to increase the tone of its warnings against Turkey," the article reads.
The author notes, however, that it’s still not clear how this attack will help the international community to adopt a linear line about how the political transition will take place in Syria.
"With Turkey remaining the forefront country in plans to change the regime in Syria, it would unfortunately continue to be the target of its adversary. Given the huge intelligence neglect that paved the way for such a bloody attack in Reyhanlı, Ankara is much more concerned that it could only be the beginning. This should be the main reason for Erdoğan asking his own Inspection Board to reveal any possible neglect of relevant state institutions," Demirtas concludes.
