Background Report: Turkish Government Alarmed at Terrorist Attack; Turkish Jews Had Lived in Tranqui

The brutal and sadistic massacre by “Arabic-speaking” terrorists of more than a score of Jews attending services at Istanbul’s refurbished Neve Shalom Synagogue has shocked and horrified the civilized world. For the 20,000 Jews of Istanbul, Neve Shalom, the venerable “Abode of Peace” in Hebrew, was suddenly transformed into a charnel house and conflagration.

The attack was all the more disconcerting because the Jewish community had become accustomed to living in tranquility and peace under the new democratic institutions reestablished after the Turkish military authorities had intervened in September 1980 to end the terrorist violence that had disrupted the country.

But Jewish religious institutions never became targets even at the height of the domestic turmoil. Leftist terrorist groups, such as the Turkish People’s Liberation Army (TPLA), which had assassinated Israeli Consul General Ephraim Elrom in Istanbul in 1971, had received training in Palestinian camps in Lebanon.

Their anti-Israel violence was motivated by their radical view of Israel as the ally of Western imperialism. They also attacked British and Canadian as well as American officials in Turkey. The Turkish authorities had caught, convicted and hanged three TPLA leaders in 1972.

In the resurgence of violence that gripped Turkey in the late 1970’s, leftist groups again targeted Israeli diplomats, employees of El Al, the Israeli airline which provides direct flights between Istanbul and Ben Gurion airport, American and other Western diplomats and some prominent Turks.

A few Jewish industrial and commercial leaders were reportedly also on their hit list, but it is not clear whether they were targeted because of their Israeli connections or simply because they had become part of the Turkish business establishment.

After Egypt negotiated peace with Israel, the Egyptian Embassy in Ankara became a target for radical Palestinian terrorists. Relations between the Turkish government and the Palestine Liberation Organization became strained when evidence that came out that the head of the PLO office in Ankara, which was opened in 1979, may have aided the terrorists.

These strains were heightened in 1982, after Israel provided Turkey with fresh evidence it had captured in PLO bases in southern Lebanon of the presence there of Turkish urban guerrillas, as well as anti-Turkish Armenian and Kurdish secessionist bands.

Then Turkish Foreign Minister Ilter Turkmen expressed his displeasure to reporters on August 20, 1982, noting that the PLO “had repeatedly given assurances that there were no Turkish terrorists in any of the organizations it controlled but now the existence of these terrorist cells had been proven.” Turkmen added that he expected that, in contrast to the anarchic situation in Lebanon, the Syrian government would prevent terrorist elements from operating against Turkey.

Yet these expectations were to be unfulfilled. On Oct. 17, 1984 Prime Minister Turgut Ozal told Parliament that Turkish terrorists, Kurdish secessionists and Armenian terrorists, backed by the Soviets, had been receiving training in “Palestinian camps” in Syria, and that Turkish warnings to Syria had failed to solve the problem. Periodic clashes have continued between Turkish military forces and terrorist elements in the areas along Turkey’s southeastern borders.

COOPERATION AGAINST TERRORISM

Since Turkey continues to be a target of terrorist groups, it is natural that the Turkish authorities have been vigorous in their efforts to counteract terrorism, including ongoing quiet cooperation and intelligence sharing with the United States and other countries, including Israel.

Prime Minister Ozal, after calling the Cabinet into special session on Sept. 6 over the Istanbul synagogue attack, issued a forceful condemnation of “this heinous act in a house of worship,” which he said added to “the gravity of the murders and the indignation felt by the Turkish nation.”

“The incident in Pakistan”–a reference to the previous day’s hijacking of a Pan Am plane in Karachi by Palestinian terrorists in which 16 persons were killed–and “the criminal attack in our country today” Ozal said, “clearly show once again the necessity for all countries to work together against international terrorism.”

In his statement, Ozal also stressed that “all citizens living in Turkey are under the protection of the state, irrespective of their religion, language or race,” adding, “We share as a nation the grief and pain of all the families of our fellow citizens who have died because of this odious assault, and express our deepest sympathies to them.”

This reassurance to the Jewish community was welcome, especially since many observers have been noting a resurgence of Islamic piety among the younger generation in Turkey. While by no means as widespread as the Islamic fundamentalism that has taken over in Iran, it is feared by some that this tendency, if left unchecked, could erode the Western, secularist outlook which Mustafa Kemal Atakurk, founder of the Turkish Republic, sought to instill in the youth.

Ozal, himself a devout Moslem, has been encouraging closer ties between Turkey and the Islamic world, although his declared intention is primarily to reap economic and political benefits from Turkey’s position as a bridge between the West and the Middle East. Ozal has refused to yield to Arab demands to break off relations with Israel.

The Turkish authorities are trying to establish the identity of the terrorists and determine whether they in fact belonged to the Palestinian Revenge Organization, a possible Abu Nidal front, or to one of the Moslem fundamentalist groups, such as the Lebanese-based Islamic Holy War, or the Islamic Resistance, a pro-Iranian group, each of which claimed responsibility.

It will also be important to determine-whether they received any logistical support from indigenous Turkish sources. (Witnesses say they saw two persons flee the scene.)

POSSIBLY SIGNIFICANT DATE

If this is established, then the date of the synagogue attack, Sept. 6, may prove highly significant. For it was on Sept. 6, 1980 that a massive rally was held in the traditional Islamic center of Konya, where religious fanatics shouted Arabic slogans and called for the abolition of secularism in Turkey.

Ostensibly, the march was called to protest against Israel’s Knesset decision proclaiming unified Jerusalem Israel’s eternal capital. But the “Jerusalem Liberation Day” rally in Konya soon turned overtly anti-Semitic. Necmettin Erbakan, leader of the pro-Islamic National Salvation Party (NSP), blamed “International Zionism” for all of Turkey’s economic problems, called on Turkey to break off diplomatic ties with Israel and urged all Moslems to liberate Jerusalem.

According to eye-witnesses, a child, dressed in traditional Islamic garb, marched carrying a banner, declaring: “Death to the Jews!” Another banner proclaimed: “One branch of Zionism is capitalism, the other is communism.” The demonstration ended with the burning of the Israeli, American and Soviet flags. (This symbolized that for Erbakan’s followers as for Ayatollah Khomeini’s, the three “Satans” which Islam had to confront were Israel, the U.S. and the Soviet Union.)

THE ‘LAST STRAW’

The Konya rally was “the last straw” for the Turkish military, who regard themselves as the guardians of Ataturk’s secular heritage. Six days later, on September 12, 1980, the military, led by Chief of Staff Kenan Evren, took over. The NSP and other extremist parties were outlawed. Erbakan was arrested and charged with violating the Turkish constitution. He was tried and convicted, but was recently released from prison.

Is it simply a coincidence that the first terrorist attack on a synagogue in Turkey took place on Sept. 6, the anniversary of the Konya rally or does this mark a renewed challenge to Turkish secularism by virulently anti-Semitic Islamic fundamentalists? General Evren, who became President in November 1982, and the.