Commenting on Saudi Arabia’s announcement that it had created a 34-member ‘Islamic coalition against terrorism’, Turkish journalists and analysts suggest that a country which is responsible for creating Islamist terrorism as we know cannot be relied upon to fight it.
With Iran, Syria and Iraq conspicuously missing from the new coalition, despite the fact that the war against Daesh (ISIL) and other jihadist terrorists is taking place primarily on Syrian and Iraqi territory, commentators from around the world have suggested that the new alliance may have ulterior motives. In Turkey, a member of the new Saudi coalition, several journalists have taken on the brave task of criticizing their government’s moves despite more and more heavy-handed approaches to press censorship.
“Against what background has this new alliance been created?” Can Ugur, a journalist for the Turkish daily newspaper BirGun, asks. “If we take a look at developments in the region, it becomes clear that countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey do not have any problems with jihadism. The very name of the coalition ‘the Islamic anti-terrorist coalition’, reveals its true nature.”