THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary-January 3, 2017- Topic 2
New Year’s-eve tragedy in Turkey
The New Year’s-eve attack on an
Istanbul nightclub that killed at least 39 people, mostly
foreigners including two Indians, is yet another reminder of the rapidly
deteriorating security situation in Turkey.
It comes days after the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, was shot dead in Ankara by a lone gunman. In 2016, there were dozens of violent incidents, both by the Islamic State and Kurdish rebels, which have raised questions about the government’s ability to provide even basic public security. The attacks have also badly hit the tourism economy, which makes a sizeable contribution to Turkey’s GDP. The Istanbul attacker, who the IS has called “a heroic soldier of the Caliphate”, has followed a similar pattern. He chose an upmarket nightclub in the western part of Istanbul where foreign tourists had gathered to welcome the New Year. But why is Turkey being repeatedly targeted? Or, how has the country, till a few years ago politically stable with a booming economy, descended into instability and chaos? In part, it is a blowback for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Syria policy, which turned out to be a monumental failure. Like many of his Western allies, Mr. Erdogan also initially thought that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was about to fall, and offered help to the anti-regime rebels. Ankara also inadvertently helped the rise of the IS by allowing jihadists to cross into Syria via the Turkish border. By the time the government realised its folly and started attacking the IS, the group had grown into a real terror machine.
It comes days after the Russian ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, was shot dead in Ankara by a lone gunman. In 2016, there were dozens of violent incidents, both by the Islamic State and Kurdish rebels, which have raised questions about the government’s ability to provide even basic public security. The attacks have also badly hit the tourism economy, which makes a sizeable contribution to Turkey’s GDP. The Istanbul attacker, who the IS has called “a heroic soldier of the Caliphate”, has followed a similar pattern. He chose an upmarket nightclub in the western part of Istanbul where foreign tourists had gathered to welcome the New Year. But why is Turkey being repeatedly targeted? Or, how has the country, till a few years ago politically stable with a booming economy, descended into instability and chaos? In part, it is a blowback for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Syria policy, which turned out to be a monumental failure. Like many of his Western allies, Mr. Erdogan also initially thought that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was about to fall, and offered help to the anti-regime rebels. Ankara also inadvertently helped the rise of the IS by allowing jihadists to cross into Syria via the Turkish border. By the time the government realised its folly and started attacking the IS, the group had grown into a real terror machine.
Mr. Erdogan’s decision to relaunch the
war with Kurdish rebels was also linked to his policy debacle in Syria. When
the rebels started building an autonomous Kurdistan in Syria in the wake of the
government’s withdrawal from the border region and emerged as battlefield
allies of the U.S. against the IS, Mr. Erdogan saw it as a long-term challenge
to Turkey, given the long history of fighting between the Turkish state and the
Kurdish militants. He abandoned a ceasefire with the Kurdistan Workers Party,
kicking off a new phase of the civil war. Mr. Erdogan is now in a tight spot.
The country faces constant threats from the IS, a group that it once ignored.
The civil war with Kurdish rebels, which Mr. Erdogan might have hoped would
curtail the nationalist ambitions of the Kurdish minority, is growing out of
control. Besides, Mr. Erdogan’s authoritarian tendencies and the crackdown on
dissent and opposition parties are deeply polarising the country. It is this
fragility of the security architecture in Turkey that is frequently being
exposed by the attackers.
Vocabulary
Deteriorate: become progressively worse.
Example: Relations between the countries had deteriorated sharply
Synonyms: worsen, decline, degenerate, fail, slump, slip, go
downhill, wane
Boom: having a period of great prosperity or rapid economic growth.
Example: The booming economy
Synonyms: flourishing, burgeoning, thriving, prospering, prosperous
Descended: move or fall downward.
Example: The aircraft began to descend
Synonyms: go down, come down, drop, fall, sink, dive, plummet
Blowback: the unintended adverse results of a political action or situation.
Example: This is the blowback from all those aggressive public health campaigns
Monumental: great in importance, extent, or size.
Example: It's been a monumental effort
Synonyms: huge, great, enormous, gigantic, massive, colossal, mammoth
Inadvertently: without intention; accidentally.
Example: His name had been inadvertently omitted from the list
Debacle: a sudden and ignominious failure; a fiasco.
Example: The economic debacle that became known as the great depression
Synonyms: fiasco, failure, catastrophe, disaster, mess, ruin, downfall
Battlefield: the piece of ground on which a
battle is or was fought.
Example: Death on the battlefield
Synonyms: battleground, field of battle, field of operations, combat
zone
Curtail: reduce in extent or quantity; impose a restriction on.
Example: Civil liberties were further curtailed
Synonyms: reduce, cut, cut down, decrease, lessen, pare
down, trim, retrench
Dissent: the expression or holding of opinions at variance with
those previously, commonly, or officially held.
Example: There was no dissent from this view
Synonyms: disagreement, dispute, disapproval