Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front
Encyclopedia
The Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front (İslami Büyükdoğu Akıncılar Cephesi in Turkish
, abbreviated IBDA-C) is an Islamic militant organization which follows the Büyük Doğu ("Great East") ideology of Necip Fazıl Kısakürek
(1905–1983), a well-known Turkish author, poet and Islamist ideologue. The group's self-proclaimed goal is to create a Sunni Islamic federate state in the Middle East
and re-establish the Caliphate
. They are notably hostile to Shia, Alevi
, Christian
and Jewish interests. IBDA-C carries on his pro-Islamic legacy with a newly-born radicalism that wishes to restore religious rule to Turkey of whose government it finds "illegal" with an added willingness to commit acts of terrorism
.
IDBA-C has a history of claiming credit for attacks most experts believe are beyond its capabilities, such as the November 2003 and July 2008 attacks on diplomatic, business, and religious interests in Istanbul
. As such, its designation with the United States Government continues to be as an "Other Terrorist Group," as opposed to the better-organized and -financed groups designated as official "Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations."
. The group moved from rhetoric to violence in the 1990s, culminating in a series of 90 bombings and attacks in 1994.
Salih Izzet Erdiş, a spiritual follower of Kısakürek, was captured on Dec. 31, 1998, and sentenced to death in April 2001 for "attempting to overthrow Turkey's secular state by force." His lawyer, Ahmet Arslan, maintained that his client was no more than "a man of thought," arguing that there was a lack of concrete evidence supporting the charges. Erdiş's death sentence was later commuted when Ankara abolished the death penalty in August 2002.
In August 2003, Erdiş claimed responsibility for his crimes and attributed his actions to "mind control", seeking help from the Forensic Medicine Institute in Turkey. But any quest Erdiş may have had for clemency was denied in March 2004, when a Turkish court issued Erdiş a 20-year prison sentence for using handmade explosives and weapons in a riot against authorities at Metris Prison.
Although Erdiş remains in prison, IBDA-C has continued its activities, being most heavily active in the Istanbul region, attacking bars, discothèques, and churches. Members of IBDA-C don't operate under any defined hierarchical structure, and carry out actions in small independent groups that are united behind their common goals and ideologies.
is, a contingent roughly defined as those who are willing to take up arms for the faith of Islam. Viewing Turkey's secular regime as "illegal," IBDA-C wishes to destroy the secular state and constitutional system and replace it with religious rule and law, first in Turkey, and then throughout the world. The group has gone about asserting these goals by inflicting armed terror primarily on civilian targets. IBDA-C shares ideological ties with al-Qaeda.
Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, whom IBDA-C borrows its core ideology from, advocated a return to "pure Islamic values" and the restoration of a universal Islamic caliphate in the Muslim world
. His system of thought,Büyük Doğu, an absolutist ideology promising to bring Muslims closer to success and salvation, with the central idea that truth is only accessible through the practice of Islam. He also argued that the secular nature of Turkey was responsible for the state's inability to ward off what he saw as Western Imperialism. Kısakurek was seen as the pioneer of "ideal Islamic society" by the founders of IBDA-C.
The attacks in 2003 provide the strongest implication of ties between IBDA-C and al-Qaida, although the exact nature of their cooperation remains unclear. Al-Qaida may have acted merely as an outside support base, or possibly in tandem with IBDA-C in terms of planning and execution. Some, on the other hand, assert that IBDA-C had no involvement at all; contradicting reports from the Turkish media solely credit al-Qaida with the attacks, implying that IBDA-C did not have the means to carry out such a sophisticated act of terrorism. Indeed, IBDA-C showed no willingness to exercise suicide terrorism prior to November 2003. Regardless of whether or not IBDA-C actively participated in these particular attacks, the attention received provided the group with a heightened level of international infamy, as they were previously not well known at the global level.
Despite al-Qaida's similar aims and superior stature as an international terrorist organization, IBDA-C views itself as the quintessential Islamic revivalist movement toward which all others should dedicate their resources.
In addition to committing terrorist attacks, the organization also produces propagandist literature put out in bookstores and on the Internet, which has the potential to attract new members, including those from other countries.
In December 2003, the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, reported that the group could count on as many as 600 supporters in Germany. In another report regarding the possible German contingent, a Turkish rail worker claimed, "Istanbul was nothing. The major butchery is yet to come." Although IBDA-C is thought to have supporters throughout Western Europe, the group has not performed any significant terrorist attacks there since their alleged actions in Istanbul. The number of extremist supporters actively participating in IBDA-C's terrorist plots is not known, but thought to be small.
IBDA-C has kept relatively quiet in 2004, although seven members of the group were indicted in June for the murder of a Turkish cult leader, Col. Ihsan Güven and his wife. Burak Çileli, one of the defendants, is said to have described Güven contemptuously in IBDA-C literature, calling him a "pervert," a "Jewish sympathizer," and "pro-American." The accused were apparently angered that the murders were not immediately reported by the press, claiming that they also had plans to attack a TV talk show host and columnist named Savas Ay in order to heighten publicity for their organization.
IBDA-C is not an organization to be taken lightly, but it can perhaps be said to have a dubious future as its leader, Erdiş, sits in prison, and the group has no clearly defined hierarchical structure. By the same token, the lack of organized centrality makes the group more elusive and difficult to eliminate, much like al-Qaida. IBDA-C will continue to be a threat if it is able to sustain external spheres of support, especially from other terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida.
After Erdiş's arrest and subsequent conviction on December 29, 1998, followed by the detention of many lower-ranking figures in the group, IBDA-C's activity seemed to quiet down. However, IBDA-C burst back into the headlines when it claimed responsibility for the dual synagogue bombing in Istanbul
on November 15, 2003, which killed 24 and injured 255, as well as a subsequent attack on the HSBC
Bank and British
consulate on November 20, 2003 (see 2003 Istanbul bombings
). The second claim called the bombings a joint attack with Al Qaeda; the authenticity of the claim is disputed.
On November 29 police in Istanbul announced the arrest of a yet-unnamed man they stated had admitted to giving the order to suicide bombers to attack Beth Israel
synagogue on November 15.
). In December 2001, IBDA-C was labeled an "illegal organization" by the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
.
It is also one of the 48 groups and entities to which European Union
's Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism applies. In April 2003, the U.S. Department of State (DoS) designated the group as a "terrorist group" in their annual Patterns of Global Terrorism
report.
based on the 2003 Patterns of Global Terrorism
report the strength of the organisation in terms of human resources remains unknown.
A study carried out by the Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security over a sample of files about people convicted of being a terrorist under Turkish laws including 200 militants from the organisation and the four other currently active Islamic organisations (see reference 1) 2,5 % of the members are aged 10 to 14, 72,5 % 15 to 24, 17 % 25 to 29, 6 % 30 to 34 and 2 % 35 to 64. University graduates make up 22,5 % of the members, high school graduates 40 %, secondary school graduates 14 %, primary school graduates 19 %, literate non-graduates % 2,5 and illiterates 1,5 %.
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, abbreviated IBDA-C) is an Islamic militant organization which follows the Büyük Doğu ("Great East") ideology of Necip Fazıl Kısakürek
Necip Fazil Kisakürek
Ahmet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek was a Turkish poet, novelist, playwright, philosopher and activist. He is also known with his initials NFK...
(1905–1983), a well-known Turkish author, poet and Islamist ideologue. The group's self-proclaimed goal is to create a Sunni Islamic federate state in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and re-establish the Caliphate
Caliphate
The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...
. They are notably hostile to Shia, Alevi
Alevi
The Alevi are a religious and cultural community, primarily in Turkey, constituting probably more than 15 million people....
, Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and Jewish interests. IBDA-C carries on his pro-Islamic legacy with a newly-born radicalism that wishes to restore religious rule to Turkey of whose government it finds "illegal" with an added willingness to commit acts of terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
.
IDBA-C has a history of claiming credit for attacks most experts believe are beyond its capabilities, such as the November 2003 and July 2008 attacks on diplomatic, business, and religious interests in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
. As such, its designation with the United States Government continues to be as an "Other Terrorist Group," as opposed to the better-organized and -financed groups designated as official "Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations."
History
IBDA-C was founded in 1970 by Salih Izzet Erdiş, aka Salih MirzabeyogluSalih Mirzabeyoglu
Salih Mirzabeyoglu is a fundamentalist idealogue and alleged leader of the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front , an militant Islamist group present in Turkey. In 1975, he and his friends published a political magazine Gölge . Towards the end of the decade, he met Necip Fazıl Kısakürek and...
. The group moved from rhetoric to violence in the 1990s, culminating in a series of 90 bombings and attacks in 1994.
Salih Izzet Erdiş, a spiritual follower of Kısakürek, was captured on Dec. 31, 1998, and sentenced to death in April 2001 for "attempting to overthrow Turkey's secular state by force." His lawyer, Ahmet Arslan, maintained that his client was no more than "a man of thought," arguing that there was a lack of concrete evidence supporting the charges. Erdiş's death sentence was later commuted when Ankara abolished the death penalty in August 2002.
In August 2003, Erdiş claimed responsibility for his crimes and attributed his actions to "mind control", seeking help from the Forensic Medicine Institute in Turkey. But any quest Erdiş may have had for clemency was denied in March 2004, when a Turkish court issued Erdiş a 20-year prison sentence for using handmade explosives and weapons in a riot against authorities at Metris Prison.
Although Erdiş remains in prison, IBDA-C has continued its activities, being most heavily active in the Istanbul region, attacking bars, discothèques, and churches. Members of IBDA-C don't operate under any defined hierarchical structure, and carry out actions in small independent groups that are united behind their common goals and ideologies.
Doctrine
The Great East Islamic Raiders Front comprises Turkish Sunni JihadJihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...
is, a contingent roughly defined as those who are willing to take up arms for the faith of Islam. Viewing Turkey's secular regime as "illegal," IBDA-C wishes to destroy the secular state and constitutional system and replace it with religious rule and law, first in Turkey, and then throughout the world. The group has gone about asserting these goals by inflicting armed terror primarily on civilian targets. IBDA-C shares ideological ties with al-Qaeda.
Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, whom IBDA-C borrows its core ideology from, advocated a return to "pure Islamic values" and the restoration of a universal Islamic caliphate in the Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
. His system of thought,Büyük Doğu, an absolutist ideology promising to bring Muslims closer to success and salvation, with the central idea that truth is only accessible through the practice of Islam. He also argued that the secular nature of Turkey was responsible for the state's inability to ward off what he saw as Western Imperialism. Kısakurek was seen as the pioneer of "ideal Islamic society" by the founders of IBDA-C.
The attacks in 2003 provide the strongest implication of ties between IBDA-C and al-Qaida, although the exact nature of their cooperation remains unclear. Al-Qaida may have acted merely as an outside support base, or possibly in tandem with IBDA-C in terms of planning and execution. Some, on the other hand, assert that IBDA-C had no involvement at all; contradicting reports from the Turkish media solely credit al-Qaida with the attacks, implying that IBDA-C did not have the means to carry out such a sophisticated act of terrorism. Indeed, IBDA-C showed no willingness to exercise suicide terrorism prior to November 2003. Regardless of whether or not IBDA-C actively participated in these particular attacks, the attention received provided the group with a heightened level of international infamy, as they were previously not well known at the global level.
Despite al-Qaida's similar aims and superior stature as an international terrorist organization, IBDA-C views itself as the quintessential Islamic revivalist movement toward which all others should dedicate their resources.
In addition to committing terrorist attacks, the organization also produces propagandist literature put out in bookstores and on the Internet, which has the potential to attract new members, including those from other countries.
In December 2003, the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, reported that the group could count on as many as 600 supporters in Germany. In another report regarding the possible German contingent, a Turkish rail worker claimed, "Istanbul was nothing. The major butchery is yet to come." Although IBDA-C is thought to have supporters throughout Western Europe, the group has not performed any significant terrorist attacks there since their alleged actions in Istanbul. The number of extremist supporters actively participating in IBDA-C's terrorist plots is not known, but thought to be small.
IBDA-C has kept relatively quiet in 2004, although seven members of the group were indicted in June for the murder of a Turkish cult leader, Col. Ihsan Güven and his wife. Burak Çileli, one of the defendants, is said to have described Güven contemptuously in IBDA-C literature, calling him a "pervert," a "Jewish sympathizer," and "pro-American." The accused were apparently angered that the murders were not immediately reported by the press, claiming that they also had plans to attack a TV talk show host and columnist named Savas Ay in order to heighten publicity for their organization.
IBDA-C is not an organization to be taken lightly, but it can perhaps be said to have a dubious future as its leader, Erdiş, sits in prison, and the group has no clearly defined hierarchical structure. By the same token, the lack of organized centrality makes the group more elusive and difficult to eliminate, much like al-Qaida. IBDA-C will continue to be a threat if it is able to sustain external spheres of support, especially from other terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida.
After Erdiş's arrest and subsequent conviction on December 29, 1998, followed by the detention of many lower-ranking figures in the group, IBDA-C's activity seemed to quiet down. However, IBDA-C burst back into the headlines when it claimed responsibility for the dual synagogue bombing in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
on November 15, 2003, which killed 24 and injured 255, as well as a subsequent attack on the HSBC
HSBC Bank (Turkey)
HSBC Bank A.Ş., the Turkey subsidiary of the HSBC Group, is a bank with its head office in Istanbul.-History:HSBC Bank A.Ş. was established as Midland Bank A.Ş. in 1990. It was the subsidiary of Midland Bank and was renamed HSBC Bank A.Ş. in 1999. In October 2001, HSBC Bank A.Ş...
Bank and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
consulate on November 20, 2003 (see 2003 Istanbul bombings
2003 Istanbul bombings
The 2003 Istanbul bombings were four truck bomb attacks carried out on November 15, 2003 and November 20, 2003, in Istanbul, Turkey, leaving 57 people dead, and 700 wounded. Several men have been convicted for their involvement.- First bombings :...
). The second claim called the bombings a joint attack with Al Qaeda; the authenticity of the claim is disputed.
On November 29 police in Istanbul announced the arrest of a yet-unnamed man they stated had admitted to giving the order to suicide bombers to attack Beth Israel
Bet Israel Synagogue (Istanbul, Turkey)
Bet Israel Synagogue is located in Şişli, Istanbul, Turkey. Bet Israel and Neve Shalom Synagogues are supported and governed by the Neve Shalom Foundation. The synagogue was initially built in the 1920s and enlarged into its present size in the early 1950s due to the majority of the Jewish...
synagogue on November 15.
Designation as a Terrorist Organisation
The organisation is listed among the 12 active terrorist organisation in Turkey as of 2007 according to Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security (Turkish policeLaw enforcement in Turkey
Law enforcement in Turkey is carried out by several departments and agencies, all acting under the command of the Prime Minister of Turkey or mostly the Minister of Internal Affairs....
). In December 2001, IBDA-C was labeled an "illegal organization" by the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Northern Cyprus or North Cyprus , officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus , is a self-declared state that comprises the northeastern part of the island of Cyprus...
.
It is also one of the 48 groups and entities to which European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
's Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism applies. In April 2003, the U.S. Department of State (DoS) designated the group as a "terrorist group" in their annual Patterns of Global Terrorism
Patterns of Global Terrorism
Patterns of Global Terrorism was a report published each year on or before April 30 by the United States Department of State. It has since been renamed Country Reports on Terrorism...
report.
Human Resources
According to information provided by the Intelligence Resource Program of the Federation of American ScientistsFederation of American Scientists
The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...
based on the 2003 Patterns of Global Terrorism
Patterns of Global Terrorism
Patterns of Global Terrorism was a report published each year on or before April 30 by the United States Department of State. It has since been renamed Country Reports on Terrorism...
report the strength of the organisation in terms of human resources remains unknown.
A study carried out by the Counter-Terrorism and Operations Department of Directorate General for Security over a sample of files about people convicted of being a terrorist under Turkish laws including 200 militants from the organisation and the four other currently active Islamic organisations (see reference 1) 2,5 % of the members are aged 10 to 14, 72,5 % 15 to 24, 17 % 25 to 29, 6 % 30 to 34 and 2 % 35 to 64. University graduates make up 22,5 % of the members, high school graduates 40 %, secondary school graduates 14 %, primary school graduates 19 %, literate non-graduates % 2,5 and illiterates 1,5 %.
See also
- Hezbollah (Turkey)
- Islamic Terrorism
- List of terrorist groups
- List of illegal political parties in Turkey