EXPERTS ADVISORY

University of Michigan experts are available to discuss the airport terror attack in Istanbul, which killed 41 and injured 239.

Ronald Suny, professor of history, is an expert on nationalism and genocide. He is the author of “A Question of Genocide: Armenians and Turks at the End of the Ottoman Empire.”

“The terrorist bombing in the Istanbul airport, like earlier attacks in Istanbul and Ankara, is the reaction of ISIS to the increased involvement of Turkey in the struggle against the self-described caliphate,” he said. “Earlier, the Turkish government had neglected a direct confrontation with ISIS, allowing its fighters to move across the border to Syria.

“But under pressure from the United States, Ankara readjusted its priorities from primarily a fight against the Asad regime in Damascus to taking on ISIS. Still, President Erdoğan sees the main threat to Turkey coming from Kurdish militants in southeastern Turkey and Syria, and he insists that those struggling for Kurdish rights and autonomy should be considered terrorists. The increase in violence and heightened sense of threat may play into the hands of the Erdoğan government as it moves steadily toward creating a more authoritarian regime within Turkey.”

Contact: 734-646-1498, rgsuny@umich.edu

Fatma Müge Göçek is a professor of sociology. Her publications include “The Transformation of Turkey: Redefining State and Society from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Era” and “Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence against the Armenians, 1789-2009.”

“I think this attack is probably retribution by ISIS,” she said. “The Turkish government is complicit in initially aiding what then turned into ISIS, however. So I think they are partially to blame for this. Recently signing an agreement with Israel triggered the attack.”

Contact: 734-647-4228, gocek@umich.edu

Juan Cole, professor of history, studies the ongoing political change in the Arab world.

On his blog, Informed Comment, Cole recently wrote: “Hitting Istanbul’s Ataturk airport is classic terrorism, aimed at harming the Turkish economy. The airport accommodates 50 million passengers a year, between tourists and transit passengers.”

Contact: 734-764-6305, jrcole@umich.edu