Turkey Picks Up The Pieces Of The ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’

While the nation mourns, investigators continue to piece together video footage and witness testimonies in what one official called “a jigsaw puzzle.” What we know so far is that three gunmen attacked Istanbul’s Ataturk airport and detonated explosives when police shot at them. The death toll continues to climb, with 41 people confirmed dead and another 239 injured. Although no groups have claimed responsibility for the attack, ISIS and Kurdish militant groups have staged at least 14 major attacks across Turkey, killing more than 200 people in the last year. 

Why does this keep happening to Turkey?

Turkey is a key player in the US-led coalition against ISIS, although many criticize the Turkish government for targeting the Kurdish groups fighting ISISrather than ISIS themselves. That preoccupation with the Kurds has put the country in conflict with both US-allied Kurdish fighters and the Russian-backed Assad regime, but more importantly, Kurdish militant insurgency has grown in the south-east of Turkey in the past year, meaning Turkey faces threats from both Kurds and ISIS. Moreover, with Iraqi forces reclaiming control of Fallujahand Libyan forces taking Sirte from ISIS, the terrorist group is losing land left and right. Turkey just so happens to share a 200-mile border with Iraq and a 500-mile border with Syria, and it’s likely that the more ISIS loses territory, the more they’ll try to infringe on those borders.  

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