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What are Turkey's gun laws like. Where's 2awouldbeguy.
What are Turkey's gun laws like. Where's 2awouldbeguy.
turkey's gun laws are very lax and they have a huge arms industry. They are sold everywhere, a la USA.
Terror attacks have come right on top of each other in the country in an accelerating succession of bombings and shootings. Last month alone saw 44 people killed and 163 wounded in a twin bomb attack on a football stadium in Istanbul. Just 11 days ago in the country’s capital, Ankara, the Russian ambassador was gunned down by an off-duty policeman who announced the slaying was in protest at Russia’s indiscriminate bombing of Syrian rebels and civilians in eastern Aleppo. Since July 2015 more than 500 people have died in Turkey in terror attacks claimed either by the Islamic State terror group or Kurdish separatists. Eight IS members were detained last week suspected of preparing a suicide attack for New Year's Eve.
An injured woman is carried to an ambulance from a nightclub where a gun attack took place during a New Year's party in Istanbul, Turkey
Few security experts doubt the killing on Saturday night is somehow linked to the Islamic State terror group. While Kurdish separatists tend to target Turkish soldiers whether they are on or off duty, the only discernible pattern in who is targeted by jihadists is that there is no pattern. It is the ‘where’ that’s important, say counter-terror experts. The killing zones are crowded venues so the casualty tally has the potential to be high — the same holds true in Europe and North Africa as in Turkey.
Sad list
Istanbul’s Reina night club joins a sad list: The Tunisian resort of Sousse, where Western vacationers were slaughtered by a lone gunman who at first looked like just another beachcomber going for a stroll, kicking up some spray by the Mediterranean’s edge before unleashing his mayhem. Nice’s promenade, where French revelers celebrating Bastille Day were plowed into by a speeding truck. Paris’ Bataclan theater where 89 concert-goers were killed by suicide bombers. And last month a Christmas marketplace in Berlin, where again a speeding truck was the weapon of choice for the mass murder of innocents.
A Turkish coast guard boat patrols in front of the Reina nightclub by the Bosphorus, which was attacked by a gunman, in Istanbul
The targets couldn’t be much softer. The terror attacks are not incidents in battlefield action with bombs and bullets flying — they involve, as with the Reina nightclub slaughter, the methodical killing of unarmed victims who are often partying or relaxing and are utterly vulnerable. With rare exceptions, such as the Bataclan assault, spectacular 9/11 attacks that require some ingenuity, planning and training for months even years are currently being eschewed by jihadists. What we have is the shocking targeting of the easiest, most vulnerable victims and in the least challenging circumstances for the assailants. One of the reasons for the so-called soft targeting is that improved security and greater vigilance is making it harder for more complex terror plots to be executed, analysts say. But even improved security is not full-proof.
Enhanced security
It was there, at the Reina nightclub on the Bosporus — a hot spot for soap opera stars and professional athletes, Turks and well-heeled tourists — that those hoping to move past a particularly troubled year died together. The assault was the second in two weeks in Turkey, and it further exposed the fault lines in a country that is increasingly tearing apart amid terrorist attacks and political instability.
With the gunman still on the loose Sunday night and a nationwide manhunt underway, the killings brutally highlighted a dilemma for Turkey’s authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Even though he has cracked down on opponents and put in place security measures to bring stability to his rattled country, the attacks keep mounting. “I don’t know what to say,” said Zeynep Ozman, whose brother, Ali, was wounded in the attack. “I don’t want to say anything political, but this can’t be accepted as the new norm. Terrorism is everywhere now, and the government has no control. Something needs to be done. There is no life left in Istanbul.”
Turkey has been reeling for several years now, as it has been increasingly drawn into the Syrian civil war. By opening its borders to foreign fighters trying to reach Syria, critics say, it inadvertently supported the rise of the Islamic State, which is now carrying out attacks within Turkey. Then, in 2015, a stalled war with Kurdish militants was renewed, and this summer, Turkey suffered from an attempted coup. The attack on Sunday morning — a strike on the Western, urbane face of Istanbul — is likely to further diminish Turkey’s democracy by giving Mr. Erdogan a freer hand to expand his crackdown on opponents, which accelerated after the coup attempt. It is also likely to erode the country’s economy, which has already suffered because of a decline in tourism and foreign investment. “Nothing that the government is doing is helping make Turkey more secure,” said Asli Aydintasbas, a prominent Turkish writer and a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “The crackdown on domestic dissidents is further destabilizing the country, and when it is not destabilizing, it is increasing the dangerous polarization here.”
On Sunday, Mr. Erdogan vowed in a statement that the fight against terrorists would bring the country together. “They are working to destroy our country’s morale and create chaos by deliberately targeting our nation’s peace and targeting civilians with these heinous attacks,” he said. “We will retain our coolheadedness as a nation, standing more closely together, and we will never give ground to such dirty games.” As it had after other recent attacks, the government imposed a news blackout, saying news outlets should report only official statements.
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