Turkey turned blind eye to Isis

Under the leadership of President Erdogan, the ideals of this once proud Republic have slowly been chipped away, replaced with ever hardening Islamic morales. The Turkish government has for years turned a blind eye (or perhaps not so blind) to the Isis threat on its border.

There is evidence to show that the Turkish government has allowed fighters to cross from its territory into Syria, and vice versa. Turkey has also hosted and stands side by side with Islamic extremist groups such as Hamas, the group that perfected the use of suicide bombings.

Just last week, while Erdogan spoke about warming relations with its democratic neighbour, Israel, Turkey hosted the leader of Hamas within its territory. And then the calamity at the Ataturk Airport occurred.

And before yesterday’s attack, several other strikes throughout Istanbul have occurred.

The message to Erdogan and Turkey is clear: You can not host/support Islamic extremists of one variety and then assume that the vipers won’t turn around and bite the hand that feeds them.

It is time for the government in Ankara to wake up to this reality and stand firmly against Islamic extremism in every form, be in from Hamas, Isis or any other group.

Until it does, our newsfeeds will continue to be alerted to more such attacks in the future.

Harold Ohayon, Belfast