The worse is yet to come

Turkey has been passing through one of the worst and complicated periods of its history. Nationalist analysts say that ever since the republic was established on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, this country had never had such a "multilateral" and "concentrated" existential threat. Yet, the same analysts agree that the worst is probably yet to come.

It might be easy to claim that Turkey faced yet another crusade. However, most of the jackals attacking this country claim to be the most devoted followers of Islam. Political pundits still claim that the country was under a crusade attack because the entire trouble that Turkey has been living through was orchestrated with a war mentality by the West, particularly the U.S., British and Germans. It might appear as a comedy, or perhaps a tragicomedy, when such a perception is shared by people at the highest echelons of the state.

Indeed, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan conceded a while ago, this country has been in a "war atmosphere" for a long time. No one would perhaps like to use the words "Islam" and "terrorism" together. Yet the radical Islamist threat this country - and the world - has been facing for the past decade, has been so brutal and disgusting that no one can any longer describe it as an organization of disgruntled and angry Muslim young men. Refusing to refer to the group with its Turkish or English names because people would establish a connotation between it and the "good name of Islam" cannot solve the problem. If the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were being referred to with its Arabic acronyms "Daesh," would it make any difference other than fooling ourselves? These men are Islamist terrorists and they are so brutal, that they behead people, burn them alive and even worse...