Press TV has conducted an interview with Brian Becker, member of the ANSWER Coalition in Washington, and Michael Lane, founder of American Institute for Foreign Policy in Washington, to discuss the recent terrorist attack in Istanbul's Atatürk International Airport.
Becker says the attack in Istanbul is a “military message” to the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.
“It is a message not to go too far in abandoning his traditional allies that [Erdogan] has helped since 2011 in Syria because he will pay a price through the bombings of civilian soft targets in Turkey,” he states.
The analyst also says Erdogan’s policy in Syria has been a “complete catastrophe,” adding he is trying to build bridges with Russia.
He goes on to say this might mean the possible closing of the Turkish-Syria border which would be a “death knell” for Daesh.
Becker further argues Erdogan’s reckless policies have led to the “isolation” of Turkey.
“The Turkish government has to not be completely isolated, Turkey is too important to be entirely isolated and Erdogan’s policies have been so arbitrary that Turkey is in many ways isolated and now ... he has to break out, he has to mend fences,” he says.
Lane, for his part, believes the Daesh terrorists will never claim credit for the Istanbul attack because one of their objectives is to “sow the seeds of distrust” in Turkey.
“By not claiming credit, by not coming forth as a common target, admitting that they were responsible for it, then the seeds of distrust and the conspiracy theories and the things like that give everybody the chance to come apart rather than come together against the common enemy,” he states.
He also thinks that Turkey’s economy is going to “suffer dramatically” as a result of this terrorist attack.
He further notes that the Turkish government has to come out against Daesh and stop playing both sides of the fence.