Explosions rip through a group of protesters staging an anti-government peace rally in Ankara, October 2015, resulting in the worst ever single terror attack in Turkey’s modern history. The upsurge in violence helped propel President Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) to a stronger showing in the November elections, but he did not receive enough votes to change the constitution.

Secular and liberal Turks sighed with premature relief when on June 7, 2015, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) lost its parliamentary majority in general elections for the first time since it came to power in November 2002. With 41 percent of the national vote (compared with 49.8 percent in the 2011 general elections), the AKP won eighteen fewer seats than necessary to form a single-party government in Turkey’s 550-member parliament. More importantly, its parliamentary seats fell widely short of the minimum number needed to rewrite the constitution in the way Erdogan wanted it so as to introduce an executive presidential system that would give him uncontrolled powers with few checks and balances, if any.

Undaunted by what looked like an election defeat, Erdogan chose to toss the dice again. At his instructions, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pretended to hold coalition negotiations with opposition parties while secretly laying the groundwork for snap elections. In Erdogan’s thinking, the loss of a few more seats would make no difference to AKP power, but re-winning a parliamentary majority would make the situation totally different. Then a terrible wave of violence gripped Turkey.

First, the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan, PKK), which had been fighting a guerrilla war from mountain hideouts in northern Iraq, declared an end to its unilateral ceasefire begun in 2013. Then on July 20, a Turkish suicide bomber killed more than thirty people at a pro-Kurdish gathering in the small town of Suruc. Claiming that the Turkish state had a secret role in the bombing, the PKK killed two policemen in the town of Ceylanpinar. The three-decades-old violence between the Turkish and Kurdish communities had suddenly roared back with a vengeance. In one of Turkey’s bloodiest summers ever, more than a thousand PKK fighters and Turkish security officials were killed. (Read more from “Beware: All Eyes on ISIS While Ergodan Seeks De Facto Sultanate” HERE)

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By Ruth Halkon. Fears are growing for a priest believed to have been kidnapped by ISIS as sickening reports suggest he may be crucified on Good Friday.

Father Tom Uzhunnalil was seized when four armed militants stormed an old people’s home in Aden in Yemen on March 4.

The gunmen killed 16 people, including four nuns, in the brutal attack on the home run by the in a brutal raid which killed 16 people including four nuns.

No group has come forward to claim responsibility for the kidnap of the priest, who was a member of the Silesian order in of Bangalore, India, but a survivor said ISIS was to blame.

Now reports shared on social media suggest the priest faces being brutally tortured this Friday as Christians mark the day Jesus died. (Read more from “Fears Grow for Priest ‘Kidnapped by ISIS'” HERE)

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Quantity of Explosive Found in Belgium Surprises Officials

By C. J. Chivers. The announcement by the Belgian authorities that they had confiscated more than 30 pounds of the explosive TATP from a dwelling used by the attackers in Brussels was, in some ways, an expected development. But it contained one detail that bomb-disposal technicians and security officials regarded with surprise: the quantity of the particular explosive involved.

TATP, also known as triacetone triperoxide, is a white, crystalline explosive also used in the attacks in Paris in November, though it caused few casualties compared with the terrorists’ assault rifles. Highly unstable and sensitive to shock, friction and heat, it breaks down quickly in air. And while it can be made with basic chemistry skills and relatively simple equipment, it is more dangerous and tedious to manufacture than a commonly used fertilizer-based explosive, ammonium nitrate, which an American official, citing intelligence shared by Belgium, said the attackers had also used.

Unlike ammonium nitrate, TATP is typically seen in small quantities, not in the tens of pounds. One American official who had reviewed the intelligence related to the bombs in France and the newer intelligence from Belgium said the recovery of more than 30 pounds indicated an increased capacity since the Paris attacks. And that figure did not include any explosive actually used in the bombs that killed 31 people on Tuesday. (Read more from “Quantity of Explosive Found in Belgium Surprises Officials” HERE)

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By Morgan Chalfant. A series of coordinated terror attacks in Brussels Tuesday have put Belgium on its highest threat level alert and sparked the U.S. Embassy there to warn American citizens in the city to shelter in place.

Multiple explosions targeted two locations in Brussels Tuesday morning. Two blasts struck a departure hall of Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one occurred at the Maelbeek subway station.

The subway station is close to the offices of the European Union in central Brussels. At least one of the attacks is believed to have been the result of a suicide bomber.

Officials have confirmed that at least 31 people were killed in the attacks and 187 injured. Belgian media reports have indicated that the death toll has been elevated to 34.

“The level [of] threat in Belgium has been raised to 4 (maximum alert) with special emphasis on transport hubs, airports, stations, and nuclear plants,” Prime Minister Charles Michel said Tuesday. (Read more from “ISIS Claims Responsibility for Brussels Terror Attacks” HERE)

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Belgian Terrorists Can Still Enter US Without a Visa

By Adam Kredo. Leading lawmakers identified Belgium as a hotspot for terrorism months ago and are warning that many of the radicalized individuals living there are still able to travel to the United States without first obtaining a visa and undergoing thorough security checks.

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon Tuesday afternoon that current flaws in the U.S. visa waiver program—which facilities travel to the United States from partner nations including Belgium—have created a loophole that could permit radicalized individuals to legally enter the United States with minimal background checks.

DeSantis is warning of these flaws on the heels of deadly mass terrorist attack in Brussels on Tuesday that has killed at least 30 and wounded hundreds more.

“The visa waiver reform, this is something we have been perusing and the [Obama] administration has brushed us off at every turn,” DeSantis said, explaining that current policy does not mandate more strenuous checks on individuals identified as coming from terrorist hotspots, such as the small Belgian town of Molenbeek, which has emerged as a principal training site for jihadists.

“It’s the case that if those folks are citizens of Belgium they qualify for the visa waiver program and can hop on a plane and get here,” he added. “Clearly, that is not adequate given what happened.” (Read more from “Belgian Terrorists Can Still Enter US Without a Visa” HERE)

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