Is it terror only when the target is the West?

There are universal truths accepted unconditionally by everyone, every nation, every government in the world. One of those undisputed notions is the fact that no matter what its goals, methods, locations, players, targets may be, all forms of terrorism are unacceptable and should be condemned by all. However, there is a sinister danger lurking behind this seemingly consistent image.

Certain policy makers around the world attempt to legitimize terrorism by the use of various pretenses for the sake of their interests, goals and plans.

The most current and tangible example of this trend is the perception campaign carried out in order to clear up the name of the Stalinist terrorists PKK, a separatist movement that has martyred more than 40,000 people in the southeastern Turkey in the past 40 years.

More importantly, this white-washing campaign persists although it is a widely known fact that PKK has targeted Turkish people’s brotherhood, solidarity, order, peace and attacked innocent civilians in complete ignorance of laws, rules, or moral ethics for decades now. These are also the reasons why the US and the EU have designated PKK as a terrorist organization.

Nevertheless, certain Western circles today have no reservations about offering open and hidden support to PKK. A number of media organizations and think-tanks have also made their support for PKK almost an official policy.

These circles do not hesitate to portray the PKK militants as persecuted democratic heroes and freedom fighters and mislead the international community in a systematic manner.

Although PKK is designated a terrorist organization by the EU, they still can easily open up headquarters on EU lands, propagate their causes, run TV networks, newspapers and magazines, recruit new militants, raise funds and build connections with governments and intelligent offices.
In the past seven months, PKK has considerably stepped up its bloody attacks in Turkey, assassinated many soldiers, policemen and village guards. Taking advantage of the logistic support provided by municipalities that are linked to PKK’s political branches, PKK militants planted remotely-controlled bombs underneath intercity roads and detonated them, martyring, injuring and disabling scores of soldiers and police officers.
By the use of arms, they declared so-called liberated regions in many southeastern districts like Sur, Silvan, Nusaybin, Cizre and Silopi. They also dug up trenches around these regions and attacked security forces that moved in to interfere. As a result of these cowardly and treacherous attacks, only in the past seven months, 269 security personnel became martyrs.

Since PKK uses civilians as human shields in the areas they occupy, the military operations lasted for months when they could have been easily completed in hours. The only reason was the fact that security forces worked with great care not to harm the civilians in the slightest, in these so-called liberated areas.
Regrettably, a group of PKK-sympathizing academicians tried to portray this rightful and justified action taken to protect the safety of the nation, as an operation against the civilians in violation of human rights.

Interestingly enough, amongst the 1,128 signatories of this declaration, there were many famous Marxist philosophers, writers and politicians. It is important to emphasize a crucial point here.

Freedom of expression is no doubt a significant value and it is crucial Turkey pays great attention to freedoms considerably. However, when it is terrorism in question - like it is the case with Turkey now -, when the country faces the threat of being divided by Stalinist, anarchist groups, any attempt to show the state’s defensive acts as tyranny, would not only constitute a crime and but also an attempt against the integrity of the country.

State is a powerful system and no civilized and developed country can accept attempts to weaken it. Especially when terrorism threat becomes serious, it is very reasonable and necessary for the state organs to take comprehensive action regarding the issue. Therefore, in this very sensitive period that Turkey is going through, when solidarity is needed more than ever, use of a language that supports terrorism, will be nothing short of an attempt against the integrity of our country. Indeed, many people that signed the declaration later said that they weren’t aware of its content.

Going back to the foreign support provided to PKK terrorist organization, it is now a proven fact that many of the ammunition and arms, which included even drones, supplied to PYD by countries like the US, Germany and Russia with the pretense of fighting the Islamic State (IS) militant group, were later handed over to PKK (PYD is the Syrian branch of the PKK).

The respective countries were warned regarding these weapons, of which origins and serial numbers were identified. Many fighters, snipers, military trainers and intelligence officers from the US, Canada and Europe, are also known to fight on the side of PKK.

In addition, there is a glaring contradiction: Western circles, deeply connected to and supportive of the PKK, take a completely different stance when terrorism turns its weapons to Western countries. Any terrorist actions against them is suddenly made the No 1 issue of the world while Western administrations makes absolutely no reservations in applying the harshest, strictest sanctions, penalties, restrictions and right violations. At times, they take measures that cancel liberties, do not even question censoring practices, start months-long states of emergency, make countless arrests, detentions while blacklisting becomes a routine.

It is high time the Western world abandons this double standard that is tantamount to saying: “any attacks against it are terrorist attacks, but any attacks against you will be considered democratic fight for freedom. Anyone attacking us will be drowned in his bloodand terrorism will be used for our purposes’”.Instead they should adopt a fair, honest, humane approach.

By Harun Yahya
The writer has authored more than 300 books translated in 73 languages on politics, religion and science. He may be followed at @Harun_Yahya and www.harunyahya.com