ANKARA (Realist English). On February 3, in his speech at the Board of the Migration Department with the participation of regional leaders, organized in Antalya, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu addressed the US Ambassador with harsh statements. As you know, last week some Western countries issued a warning about travelling to Turkey.
The first warning came from the United States. After that, many countries closed their consulates in Istanbul for several days and worked online. In fact, by warning their citizens Western countries also warned Turkish citizens.
The public began to monitor the security situation in the country based on consular statements. And it seems that there is a serious security problem.
It’s all about the upcoming elections
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) announced that elections will be held on May 14. As part of Recep Erdoğan‘s policy of escalating tensions with Western countries before every election, this year a provocative act of burning the Koran in Sweden was put on the agenda.
There is no evidence of this, but perhaps this action was organized by someone. Erdoğan, who inflamed the Palestinian and Armenian issues on the eve of the previous elections, has now postponed these two issues until better times. Ankara needed new material that it could use. Which, in fact, was provided by Rasmus Paludan, the Danish fascist. The Erdoğan regime in the pre-election atmosphere found it useful for the elections to go by forcing a reaction to the actions of the provocateur. And it was not difficult to find people who would protest.
The growing unrest in all sectors of the society, from the government to the opposition, has transformed into anger towards Sweden. A group of angry Islamists tried to enter the Swedish consulate located in Beyoglu Istiklal. The police barely managed to stop the aggressive crowd.
In response to the statements of trolls published on social networks that actions to burn the Koran will be held in other Western countries, anger towards the United States and many European countries began to escalate. After that, on January 27, the US State Department hasissued a security warning in relation to Turkey that after the recent burning of the Koran in Europe, the US government warns its citizens about possible retaliatory attacks by terrorists in places of worship in Turkey. Terrorists targeting places of worship or places frequented by residents of Western countries can attack almost without warning.”
The first warning was of a general nature. However, on January 29, the United States published a second updated version of the warning. Stating that Istanbul is an extremely important city for the US government in terms of regional and global security, US Consul General Julie A. Eadeh, who was born into a family of Palestinian immigrants, said that they are in close cooperation with the Turkish authorities. Statements by American agencies that they warn their citizens about the risk of possible retaliatory attacks by terrorists in places of worship in Turkey, that terrorists targeting places of worship or places frequented by residents of Western countries can attack almost without warning, have led European countries to action.
The US was followed by the authorities of France and Germany, which are among the countries whose citizens are more targeted by the alleged terrorist attacks in Turkey. The French Embassy has sent a warning to its citizens to stay away from places frequented by foreign citizens, including places of worship. The German Foreign Ministry also informed its citizens: “The risk of terrorist attacks has increased in Turkey. Therefore, visiting busy, crowded public places should be avoided. Care should be taken when visiting places of worship.”
They also announced that the German Consulate General in Istanbul will be closed until February 3 for security reasons and that visa and passport services will not be provided. Leading Western countries have taken another step after these warnings to their citizens. Germany, England, France and the Netherlands have decided to temporarily suspend the activities of their consulates.
The Netherlands announced that it would stop providing services from January 30 until an indefinite time. A similar statement was received from the Consulate General of France. For the same reason, Canada has issued a number of warnings to its citizens about the need to be careful.
Warning from the Armenian Foundation about the terrorist attacks of ISIS* (an organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation)
Meanwhile, the Union of Armenian Foundations (ERVAP) and the president of the foundation “Armenian Hospital Surp Pirgich” Bedros Shirinoglu voiced a warning about a possible terrorist attack by this terrorist group. Noting that the terrorists of ISIS* (banned in Russia) arrived in Turkey to carry out terrorist attacks, Shirinoglu said that they had received information from spiritual and civil leaders about their upcoming attacks. In his message to the leaders of the Armenian community , Shirinoglu wrote the following: “We need to pay attention to mass cultural events and schools. We need to take precautions to the extent possible. It would be advisable to suspend community-related activities for 2-3 months. In this regard, I am canceling our meeting on February 6.”
The representative offices of Western countries would not take measures without a warning from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The President of ERVAP Bedros Shirinoglu noted that he issued the warning after the information he had received from the Security Department.
Moreover, he stated that the Ministry had strengthened the protection provided to him. The authorities of Western countries would not have been able to take these measures without a warning from the authorities of the Republic of Turkey. If the consulates of Western countries had taken such measures to cause Turkey trouble, as Soylu claims, the ambassadors of these countries would have been summoned to the Foreign Ministry one by one and brought to justice for “unjustifiably creating panic.”
To date, no ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry for this purpose, and the US Consul General in Istanbul, Julia Eadeh, openly stated in an interview for the NTV that the source of this information is the Turkish authorities. Interior Minister Soylu took the opportunity to put pressure on Western countries. In other words, he caused the strongest provocation with his statements in preparation for the elections. The ground is being prepared for winning the elections and for the fact that if they (despite all efforts) still lose the elections, something would happen that would create chaos in the country.
Arif Asalıoğlu — Director General of the International Institute for the Development of Scientific Cooperation, special the Realist Nes Agency
The article was prepared by the author on February 4, two days before the most powerful earthquake in Turkey and Syria
