Description: Three armed assailants attempted to attack the empty Israeli consulate in Istanbul as they were confronted by police forces engaging in a 10 – minute long armed confrontation. Two of the gunmen were wounded while the third was killed as Turkish police forces arrested 8 additional suspects connected to the attack. One of the gunmen had previous financial ties with the Islamic State terrorist organization as Turkish interior minister, Mustafa Ciftci, stated that the armed assailants pertained to a group that exploited religion for conducting their activities without specifically naming the Islamic State. Turkish president Erdogan criticized the attack claiming that Turkey would confront any attempt at destabilizing the country’s security status. The Israeli ministry of foreign affairs condemned the attack and commended the Turkish security forces for their prompt intervention.
Impact: The attack on the Israeli consulate possesses all the hallmarks of an abrupt terrorist operation motivated by religious or anti – semitic sentiments, considering Israel and Turkey’s differentiating positions on the war in Gaza. Turkey has a long history of terrorist attacks from militant and terrorist groups such as the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, Kurdistan’s Workers Party (PKK), Syria’s Kurdish militia (YPG) and the Islamic State. The country is faced with internal political instability, driven by Erdogan’s political purges of opposition figures which translates into a weakened security landscape susceptible towards threats from terrorist attacks and other forms of instability. The attack is most likely an isolated event organized from affiliates of militant or terrorist groups which would most likely not translate towards larger deterioration of the security status of the country.