TERROR WITHOUT BORDERS

The terrorist acts committed in France cannot have come as an totally complete surprise. Of late the Islamic State (IS) grouping has clearly demonstrated that it is striving to move its activity beyond the borders of the self-proclaimed "caliphate" on the territory of Syria and Iraq. Acts of terrorism have taken place in Beirut which is incidentally called the "Paris of the Middle East"; on 10 October Ankara experienced the biggest act of terrorism in its history; an airliner carrying Russian tourists is thought to have been blown up by a bomb over Egypt's Sinai peninsula; on 12 November people suspected of being involved with IS were arrested in Italy, Norway, Finland, Great Britain and Switzerland.

In spite of all this, what happened came as a shock. This was a large-scale, planned, bloody and daring attack. It is sufficient to recall that one of the terrorists' targets was the Stade de France stadium where a football match was being played between the French and German teams and where French President Francois Hollande was present. Fortunately large-scale casualties were avoided at the sports event and the head of state was not hurt either. At the same time, the terrorists opened fire on several restaurants in the French capital and caused an explosion on the Voltaire Boulevard.

The most terrible massacre happened at the rock concert in the "Bataclan" theatre. One hundred and thirty-two people perished, approximately 300 were wounded, of them dozens were critically hurt. There were not only French people among the casualties, but also citizens from Belgium, Romania, Sweden, the USA, Spain, Algeria and Mexico. A few hours after the incidents, France declared her borders closed and introduced a state of emergency throughout her territory. Nervousness reigned in many countries on 14 November, and on the following day there were false alarms about bombs and shooting. The police and the special services have set about carrying out large-scale raids.

IS immediately claimed responsibility for the terrorist acts, announcing that now the French had their own "11 September" and this was revenge for the operations against them in Syria. The people directly involved in carrying out the acts of terror are being established by an investigation. Eight terrorists are known to have been killed, seven of them were suicide bombers and one was shot dead by police, yet another one managed to escape and is being sought in France's neighbouring countries, Belgium and Spain. According to the accounts of eyewitnesses, the attackers were young and spoke French without an accent.

According to the western media, at least one of the fighters was a French citizen, many of them had ties with Syria, had spent some time there and one is thought to have come to France under the guise of being a refugee. The Serbian newspaper "Blic" has reported the name of the probable organiser of the terrorist acts, a Syrian citizen, Ahmed Almohammed. According to the newspaper's information, he arrived in Greece on 3 October, then made his way to Serbia via Macedonia.

The assumptions that terrorists could infiltrate the European Union [EU] with the refugees were bound to crop up, and they are causing problems for the migrants to Europe on a completely new, extremely dangerous level. The leaders of the united Old World will have to do everything possible and impossible to prevent possible outbursts of Islamophobia and violence against the uninvited guests from the Middle East and North Africa. Immediately after the terrorist acts in Paris news was circulated that 40 tents in the refugee camp in Calais in the north of France had burnt down. The authorities are not confirming that this was arson, but the timing of the events is alarming all the same. Also alarming is what will happen to these people who are continuing to arrive in the EU once winter comes.

Poland has stated that, in view of the attacks in Paris, it will not allow any more refugees into the country. The Czech Republic and a number of other EU member-countries had again said that the frontiers need to be closed. There can be no doubt that, even in spite of the views of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany will draw its own conclusions. Besides this, throughout the European Union, there will most likely be a drastic rise in the popularity of the far-right parties. National Front president Marine Le Pen will gain additional votes in the next elections in France.

But the leader of the republicans, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, has the best chance of being elected and he is known for his hard-line methods of solving problems relating to migrants and terrorism. Although this is absolutely not the right time for political intrigues, the French nation, just like the whole of the European Union, needs to show a lot of restraint and willingness to come to comprises for the common good.

It wouldn't hurt the rest of the world community to think like this either. French President Hollande has called the terrorist acts in Paris "an act of war" and Russian President Put has called it "a challenge to civilisation". US Secretary of State John Kerry saw in the Paris explosions "a manifestation of the Middle Ages and new fascism". You cannot argue with these statements. Several thousand people are in fact keeping millions in fear, because no-one knows when and where this may happen the next time. The terrorists are cleverly taking advantage of the extremely profound lack of understanding on the part of the world political elite and the United Nations Security Council over the last few years. While diplomats are trying to reach an agreement, the terrorists, are shooting theatre-goers and blowing up holiday-makers returning home.

The war on international terrorism is already being waged for the second decade, but the threat has not become any less and it may be said is even greater now. Man is accustomed to see fresh pain as the most acute, but before the tragedy in Paris, you see, there were acts of terrorism in London, Madrid, Boston, more than once in Moscow, not to mention 11 September. While the terrorists only carry out sorties into the countries of the West, for many countries in the Middle East terrorism has long become a daily phenomenon. It is becoming increasingly hard for people not to notice this even if it happens far away from the news and politics.

Immediately after the tragedy in Paris users of the social networking sites were divided into those who coloured their own page with the colours of the French flag "as a mark of solidarity with the French people and a mark of sympathy for the victims of the terrorist act" and those who did not do that. The latter did moreover explain their viewpoint not as a complete lack of sympathy, but, on the contrary, as bewilderment why the world community has long reacted calmly to the almost weekly and daily explosions in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, but is shocked when the very same thing happens in the countries of the West. Literally a day before that bloody Friday in Paris, explosions resounded in [the Lebanese capital] Beirut, claiming the lives of 43 people.

Another problem is also that hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Iraqis, Libyans and Afghans are fleeing to Europe to escape this very "daily terrorism" and it is precisely among these people that many Europeans then see the bearers and main recruits of terrorism. It turns out that it is a vicious circle. In order to break it, we need to understand that security in Europe is now inseparable from what is taking place in the Middle East. Awareness of this fact means that many aims can no longer be pursued, but this is a must.

This fact should ultimately help us to decide who is "with us" and "who are our enemies", without which it is impossible to wage a war against terrorism. When everything is mixed up together, who do you fear and who do you help? The terrorist may make out that he is a peaceful and unfortunate refugee, a person with French citizenship may consider himself a subject of the "Islamic caliphate" and the fighters may be rated as "moderate" to "radical". In these circumstances, even the strongest security system fails. Therefore it is it hardly surprising that France, after stepping up its measures of control following the terrorist act at the editorial office of "Charlie Hebdo", was unable to prevent the events of 13 November all the same. You see, at the present time it is impossible to even understand what the seemingly definite enemy is specifically trying to achieve. Is IS going to go over to a wide-scale offensive or is it simply demonstrating its possibilities? 

Some people think that the acts of terrorism are a sign of the weakness of the terrorists, proof of desperation at the recent defeats in Syria and Iraq and the arrests in Europe and Turkey. In that case, the terrorist acts in France are a kind of message that "if you squeeze us out of the Middle East, we will come to Europe".

But the leaders of the grouping, even the most fanatical of them, cannot fail to understand that they will not be able to capture Europe, just as they will not be able to force NATO, Russia and Iran to stop fighting against them in Syria and Iraq. They are achieving the opposite. On 15 November the French Air Force launched a wave of air strikes on the IS capital Raqqa in Syria and have sent the aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle" to the Persian Gulf. Russia will not halt its operation either. After the Paris massacre, the USA will probably step up its own participation in the coalition against IS. Washington has already promised to boost its coordination with Paris.

 The most important thing is that in the first days after the terrorist acts, world leaders were constantly at the negotiating table, first in Vienna, then in Antalya in Turkey. Although the meetings had been planned earlier, there is a suspicion that the terrorists "timed" the explosions in Paris precisely to coincide with the G20 meeting. This is encouraging all the same. The dialogue must be continued, for, unless the Syrian crisis is resolved, unless common denominators are found for all the Middle Eastern problems, unless the migrant crisis is settled in Europe, it will be extremely difficult to fight the terrorists effectively, if not impossible.

In Vienna during the second round of the talks with foreign ministers of almost all 20 states attending, as well as representatives of the League of Arab States, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the EU, the intention was confirmed of holding elections in Syria in 18 months' time, and during that period a new constitution will be drawn up for the country. The sides also discussed in detail a list of terrorist organisations operating on the territory of Syria and Iraq, unanimously recognising such groupings as Islamic State and "Jabhat al-Nusra" as such organisations. Jordan was charged with drawing up a list of terrorist organisations world-wide.

"The summit in Antalya should become a turning point in the struggle against international terrorism," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the host of the G20 meeting held in Turkey's Belek province on 15-16 November, announced in his turn. Erdogan especially stressed that "the economy and security go hand in hand and are linked with human life, and the tragedy in France has shown this yet again with all obviousness." The sitting began with a minute of silence to commemorate the memory of the victims of the terrorist acts in Ankara and Paris.

"The G20 meeting in Antalya is undoubtedly important in that within its framework many behind-the-scenes talks took place in various formats. In the present circumstances, any points of contact that world leaders find, act as a balance in the struggle against IS, Thus, in spite of the forecasts, a meeting even took place between Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama, and the information that got out to the media on its outcome confirmed the Vienna accords. The parties agreed that a political transformation is needed in Syria, in which the Syrians themselves should take a leading role. In general, the participants in the G20 and the visitors at the meeting agreed to step up coordination and exchange information, in order to eliminate the channels through which terrorism is financed and not to give the extremists the opportunity to cross the frontiers.

Particular attention will be paid to border controls and air security. We would like to hope that Erdogan's words will at least be somewhat prophetic. The turning point in the struggle against terrorism should also be the starting point for a renewed international security structure. The old format is increasingly blamed for direct and indirect conflicts and tragedies like the ones that happened in Paris.