Followed by Turkey experiencing one of the bloodiest attacks of its history last month, France too has experienced an atrocious attack, both attacks carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The timing and locations of the attack, which killed 130 people, are rather interesting. A severe explosion takes place a few hundred meters away from the Stade de France, where the French and Germany national soccer teams are competing in a friendly. A day before the match a bomb warning is made to the hotel the German national team is staying, so they end up moving to another hotel. A day after this warning, an attack is carried out in the close vicinity of the stadium. French President François Hollande is watching the match too.
It is understood that French security forces had received warning calls. The call made to the hotel the German team was staying, is the part that has been reflected to the public. This indicates that there was a French intelligence and security vulnerability. On the other side, it is hardly believable that such a complicated act was committed alone by a terrorist organization, without the support of intelligence services. There is nearly a single answer, on which everyone will ally, for why France was targeted: France is in the front line of the global fight against “jihadi” organizations like ISIL.
France is lately following a rather active policy in the fight against “international terrorism.” Some 10,000 French soldiers have been deployed to Iraq, Libya and West Africa to fight against terrorism. France's military intervention in Mali, in 2013, to fight al-Qaida, still remains fresh in memories. Being active in the coalition formed against ISIL in Syria, French warships located in the east Mediterranean are bombing positions identified in Syria. All these reasons provide enough data to convince why ISIL targeted France.
Within this scope, interpretations are being made saying that if France continues to bomb ISIL in Syria, then ISIL is threatening to attack different parts of France and cause chaos in the country. Nearly all Western researchers and intellectuals close to the West, who have expressed their thoughts on the issue, see the issue through this perspective. This approach evaluates the issue that France was targeted for its position against ISIL and other “jihadi” organizations. For example, France sending troops to Mali to fight against al-Qaida and claiming the justification and legitimacy of the interventions. In other words, this attack attests that France and the world public opinion considering ISIL in Syria as a security threat to global security is an accurate detection.
Frankly, this atrocious attack being interpreted with this approach is a result of a conformist foreign policy period. This is the result of an unhealthy mentality, which perceives the struggle against terrorism as sending guided missiles from the middle of the sea to certain positions, cannot evaluate the tragedy in Syria beyond ISIL and as a result of this distorted mentality develops relations with Syria's Democratic Union Party (PYD) and affiliates against ISIL. Despite sharing sentiments with Turkey regarding the solution of the Syrian crisis, French President Hollande accepted PYD terrorists in his presidential palace. And when our French counterparts were warned by Turkey that there is no good terrorist and this could be perceived as supporting and motivating terrorism, and that this attitude could harm the international law between ally countries, they seemed to not understand. And the point we arrived at was this unacceptable abominable terror attack. Nevertheless, it is hard to say that France and the Western public opinion have been able to make analytical analyses.
Having said that, the issue is still being evaluated as an ISIL issue, and French foreign policy is still being motivated with this argument. Whereas, ISIL is only one of the flies roaming over the swamp the Assad regime has created. Somehow it isn't comprehended that struggling with the flies instead of draining the swamp, will only bring temporary solutions to the problem. Moreover, Syrian refugees who have escaped the swamp and are only trying to secure their human rights and right to live are being held responsible for the attacks. European countries are announcing that they have stopped accepting refugees, as if they had already housed millions. I had expressed, in my last article, that the previous stage of this approach was the progress report blackmailing. By the way things are going, it isn't hard to forecast that the next stage to this will be European governments transforming Islamophobia into a systematic and conscious policies.
During the Bosnian war, seeing the situation in Bosnia, French documentarian Henry Levy had said, “Europe died in Bosnia.” Levy's detection is about to be confirmed in Syria. Europeans are being delirious as if they have a terrible fever, and are continuing to tackle flies in the swamp. The owner of the swamp however, is vivacious, and is going toward Aleppo to create a new tragedy. How can the detection that the flies created the swamp be explained, after a cold shoulder is turned to the tragedy?
In conclusion, I will not go without mentioning how the attack was perceived by the public and how it was different from what Turkey experienced just a month ago. Unlike ours, the French public did not accuse their government or their intelligence of security voids. Instead, they condemned terrorism without a difference of opinion and stood against terrorism in unity. Undoubtedly, this is a difference that will be become a problem for some while teaching a lesson to others.
