Turkey Still in Al Qaeda Denial

Last September I wrote to point out Turkey’s unwillingness to believe that Al Qaeda had actually declared Jihad against them. I’ve also speculated that some of the uptick in PKK activity in 2006 and 2007 could have been false flag ops from AQ, which they are infamous for.  The public in Turkey still seems in a state of denial according to this Asia Times article:

While the Turkish government would describe itself as a full participant in the “war on terror”, there is a tendency by the public to view this conflict primarily as a struggle against Kurdish militants, and only to a lesser extent against al-Qaeda.

Nonetheless, two recent events have linked Turkey and al-Qaeda. First, according to a story in an Israeli daily, Israeli intelligence recently warned of a possible terrorist strike by al-Qaeda operatives against Israeli institutions in Turkey. Second, in the central Anatolian city of Aksaray, Turkish authorities took 19 people into custody that were suspected of links with al-Qaeda; five members of this group were later arrested.

Previous Article:

zawahiri-dajjal.jpgkemal-ataturk.jpgThe Turkish Daily news goes to great pains to say that the latest Al Qaeda tape does not really reference Ankara, but a Syrian city instead.

While they might console some of their readers, they have quickly forgotten that Al Zawahiri declared Al Qaeda Jihad against Turkey in May. Let us hope it’s just Turkey’s reporters who are delusional, and not the followers of Kemal.