Attacks on Turkey Try to Sever a Bridge Between Islam and West

ISTANBUL, Nov. 20 - Turkey's worst fears were realized Thursday when the second major bomb attack in a week confirmed that this land has become a new battleground in the struggle over terror.

The attacks appeared aimed at disrupting the pro-Western secular axis many people in the Middle East believe the United States and Britain are trying to drive through the region with Iraq war. Such an axis would create a swath of territory friendly to the West from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.

"Turkey will continue to walk on her path and exert efforts for world peace, in the country and the region," the country's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, told reporters.

Turkey, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's only Muslim member, has carefully cultivated and jealously guarded a European-style secular political culture that is crucial to the American program to send pro-Western values percolating through the tribal and theocratic grid of the Middle East.

With its foothold on the European continent and the bulk of its territory in Asia, Turkey has been the site of sweeping ideological battles before....
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/international/europe/21TURK.html?hp
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The attack on the British Envoy and consulate, timed to coincide with the Bush-Blair meeting and Bush's State visit to the Queen, highlights the anti-West global intent of the attackers. Turkey will become a garrison state, similar to Israel to protect against further attacks.

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