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A little update on what's happening in Turkey (Istanbul)

Dear all,

I am not sure what the extent of your awareness is with the ongoing affairs, but, hoping that it will help at least one of you, here is a little update.

Two-three weeks ago Turkey agreed to open its airbases to the US-led coalition to carry out attacks against ISIS. The US launched its first attack against the extremists last week with a drone, and the Turkish FM said "The real struggle starts now."

So, while the coalition still hasn't commenced all-out operation against ISIS, it is expected to do so late this week/early next week. What this means is once the operations intensify against ISIS, you can expect a lot more spontaneous attacks by the group within Turkey. Why spontaneous? Because their influential leaders have been arrested and the militants in Turkey now have nobody telling them the timing and the shape of the attack. A little bit of a chaos there.

While the simultaneous attacks on the PKK creates the biggest chaos in the east, the group has traditionally targeted police/military stations. So, I'd advice staying rather away from security outposts just to make sure... that you stay in one piece...

Well, this is all for now. Be safe, be well, and try not to be surprised. You are in Turkey.

Istanbul Forum

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