Turkish PM pledges to move closer to West

The terrorist bombings that stunned Turkey have not diminished the Muslim nation’s resolve to move closer to the West, the prime minister has said.

Turkey was determined to track down every terrorist involved in executing the bloody attacks, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.

“We have some evidence which indicates there are religious motives behind this,” Erdogan told the BBC. “But is this an al-Qaida conglomerate …? We are not 100% sure at this point.”

He also said the attacks would not dissuade his nation from seeking to become the first Muslim member of the European Union. That way, Turkey – already the only Muslim nation to belong to Nato – could become a bridge of understanding between East and West, he said.

“We see the European Union as an address where civilisations unite and harmonise,” Erdogan said. “That’s why Turkey has to enter the European Union as soon as possible. Because Turkey is a model country which has merged the culture of Islam and democracy together.”

Erdogan’s remarks came as the commercial capital of Istanbul struggled to regain its normality after four nearly identical suicide bombings killed 57 people and injured hundreds – the deadliest peacetime violence here in decades.

At least three groups with purported links to the shadowy al-Qaida network claimed responsibility for the attacks.

At memorial services for two police officers killed in the attacks, Erdogan acknowledged that the four bombers were Turks.

Meanwhile, Turkish intelligence officials confirmed reports that the county’s top political and military leaders had ordered improvements in co-ordination between the MIT national intelligence service, police and the paramilitary gendarme force.

That came amid media reports that intelligence lapses may have allowed Islamic militants the time to plan and launch the bombings.

Turkish intelligence units were working hard to piece together the workings of what appeared to be well-co-ordinated terrorist operations. Officials said the National Security Council was looking into a report that more than 1,000 Turkish radicals who fought in Chechnya, Bosnia and Afghanistan were in the country. Some of the radicals are believed to have trained in al-Qaida camps.

The government also took its anti-terror campaign to the nation’s religious institutions.

The Directorate for Religious Affairs, which controls all the mosques in Turkey, issued an anti-terrorism sermon to be preached tomorrow, the first day of a three-day Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The Rev Ian Sherwood, the British consulate chaplain in Istanbul, said not enough Islamic leaders had condemned the attacks.

“I’m appalled that I’ve not received any statements from a Muslim teacher anywhere in the world to express sorrow or reconciliation,” he said following services at Istanbul’s tiny Anglican church. “It’s rather strange that those who lead a faith are not prepared to speak out more clearly and offer condolences to the suffering in these circumstances.”

Many of those who attended services at the Anglican Christchurch lost friends or family in the attacks, including the widow and children of Roger Short, Britain’s Consul General, who was killed in the strike at the British consulate.

The first terrorist attack shook Istanbul on November 15, when pick-up trucks packed with explosives shattered two synagogues, killing 25 people, including two suicide bombers in the vehicles.

Five days later, the British consulate and the Turkish headquarters of the London-based HSBC bank were blown up in similar attacks, killing 30 people, plus the two bombers.