Hasty conclusions over attack might be risky

Star's Mahir Kaynak writes that it is wrong for the media to try to find the perpetrators of terrorist attacks instead of questioning the motives behind them, something the Turkish media failed to do in the wake of the recent attacks. "While some media outlets immediately held the PKK responsible, others said there were traces of the Ergenekon gang. This is exactly what the perpetrators of the attack wanted to achieve," Kaynak says, noting that holding the PKK responsible for this attack would lead to ethnic conflict, while holding Ergenekon responsible would bring the government and the opposition face to face. "In such cases, the goal of the attack should be found without hastily pointing at a possible perpetrator. It is not possible to bring a state to its knees with terror attacks; however, the psychological environment that is created may result in this," warns Kaynak.

Taking for granted that the attacks were carried out by the PKK, Milliyet's Taha Akyol cites several reasons why the terrorist organization would attack civilians. "They are showing their reaction to Turkey's operations against their hideouts in northern Iraq, they are taking revenge for that. They are engaged in a show of power by carrying out such attacks to improve the morale of their militants. They want to make Turkey surrender in the wake of such attacks and sit down at the negotiating table with the PKK," Akyol argues, stressing that what the PKK does actually produces the opposite results, as Turkey's desire to tackle the terrorist organization increases even more.