Turkey steps up action against Salafi networks
Turkey has substantially increased operations against Salafi-jihadi groups in 2017, but Ankara’s real problem is deciding whether to keep them under control or eradicate them.
Turkish security forces in 2016 detained 2,936 people on charges of being violent Salafi jihadis. So far this year, the pace of security operations against Salafi networks is much faster.
On Feb. 5-6, in 29 cities including Ankara and Istanbul and especially in provinces close to the Syrian border, 820 people were detained on charges of being Islamic State (IS) militants or sympathizers. With this roundup, the number of accused extremist Salafists detained in the first 40 days of 2017 is now about 1,400 — almost half of the total detained in all of 2016. Among the detainees are many illegal Syrian, Central Asian and Uighur immigrants.
What's behind this unusual pace of Turkish security forces targeting violent Salafi networks in 2017, after they truncated local networks of Salafists made up of Turkish nationals in 2016?
The main reason is the political climate in Turkey, which is preparing for a constitutional amendment referendum in April that would greatly expand the president's power. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is very much aware of the shock effect of the Istanbul nightclub attack in the first hours of the new year. That attack heightened Turkish people's fear of IS and what it can do. The government was harshly criticized for the country’s intelligence and security flaws. IS-initiated, extreme Salafi violence on the eve of the referendum would further frighten the public and expose the government's weaknesses, probably boosting the "no" votes.
