Turkey

[MM38084]

A predominantly Muslim republic that straddles Europe and Asia, Turkey has tried to navigate a careful path in the U.S.-led war against radical Islamic terrorists. Although Turkish forces joined in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, the Turks refused to allow U.S. forces to use Turkey as a northern base from which to invade Iraq this year. After an October bombing near the Turkish embassy in Baghdad, the Turks withdrew a commitment to send 10,000 troops to aid U.S. peacekeeping efforts in Iraq.

Yet the Al Qaeda terrorist network has evidently decided that Turkey will be a new front in its murderous campaign against all things civilized. Last weekend, bombers struck two synagogues, killing themselves and 23 innocent people. Thursday, as President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair jointly renewed their commitment to fight terrorism, trucks packed with explosives were detonated at a London-based bank and the British consulate in Istanbul, killing at least 27 people and injuring nearly 450.

This much should now be clear to the Turkish government: There is no neutral ground in this war. To the terrorists, there are no sidelines, just a global battlefield.

Turkey's position relative to Iraq is sensitive because of the large Kurdish population in northern Iraq that dreams of uniting with Kurds in southern Turkey to create an independent Kurdish nation. Turkey does not want to stoke those fires with a military presence in Iraq.

But the Turks can and should be more aggressive about uprooting the terrorist network that is clearly operating within their borders and is linked to the terrorists and guerrillas plaguing coalition forces in Iraq. Bush and Blair left little doubt Thursday about the resolve of their governments to rid the world of this kind of evil. Since Turkey has been brutally dragged into the fray, the Turks need to show some resolve of their own.