Turkey, one of the leading tourist destinations in the world, has become the leading destination for terrorism in recent months. Ankara, to be sure, would gladly relinquish this unflattering title. Islamic State and the Kurdish PKK, each in turn, are striking mercilessly across the country. Just two day ago the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning for southeastern Turkey -- the areas near the border with Syria and Iraq. The terrorist attacks in those areas are barely reported outside Turkey. In Ankara and Istanbul, however, they make the front pages. Tuesday night's bombing was heard around the globe. It was a devastating attack, perpetrated at Europe's third largest airport, which sees tens of thousands of travelers daily, including thousands of Israelis. In October 2015, ahead of the country's general elections, a horrific terrorist attack was carried out in Ankara. In that attack, which was the worst in Turkey's history, 102 people were murdered. Ankara then realized that the rules of the game had changed, and that similar attacks would follow. The only question was when and where. Since the beginning of this year, Ankara and Istanbul have suffered five major terrorist attacks. In one of them, on March 19 in Istanbul, three Israeli tourists were murdered. From the perspective of the perpetrators, Tuesday night's attack at Ataturk Airport, one of the most secured targets in Turkey, was a resounding success. The Kurdish underground tends to attack military targets, while the Islamic State group selects civilian ones. This is why officials in Istanbul immediately suspected ISIS was behind Tuesday's airport attack. But for the Turks, the results are all the same. This is an unacceptable reality. It is bad for tourism, the economy and the country's image. Over the past decade, Turkey has unquestionably taken a turn for the worse -- from a booming tourist hub and self-proclaimed superpower with a 7.5% rate of economic growth and grand aspirations it is now isolated with a growing list of enemies. It has turned from a country with a policy of zero conflicts into a country with zero friendly neighbors. Syria and Iraq, disintegrating just across the border, have not made things any easier for Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made every wrong move imaginable. On the one hand he was a member of NATO, but on the other hand flirted with ISIS by allowing its combatants to enter Iraq and Syria through Turkey in and effort to fight the Kurds. Erdogan made a dangerous miscalculation. In July of last year, under pressure from his NATO partners, Erdogan was forced to declare war on ISIS and exploited the military campaign to hit the Kurds as well. Erdogan's double game is now exacting a hefty price. He played with fire, and now everything he touches is bursting into flames. It appears Turkey's reconciliation agreements with Russia and Israel convey his realization that it's better to be on the side fighting terror than on the side of the terrorists. Was the bombing at Ataturk Airport the terrorist's response to the agreement with Israel? That is unclear. Such an attack would need to be planned far in advance. The answer will reveal itself with time.
