Suicide bombers attacked Istanbul’s international airport yesterday leaving at least 41 people dead and over 200 injured – most of the deceased are Turkish citizens, thirteen of the dead are reported to be foreigners from Muslim-majority countries.
Quartz reports that this is the seventh major terrorist attack in Turkey since January, and the fourth attack in Istanbul, where neighborhoods including Sultanahmet, Istiklal, and Vezneciler have been targeted.
The attacks came just at the end of the holy month of Ramadan, adding a sharp sense of anxiety over Turkish daily life. “This is an atmosphere of instability, not knowing what may happen anywhere,” commented Nihan Kaya, a writer and psychologist in Istanbul.
Quartz reports “while Turkey is a relatively new target, extremist terrorist groups like ISIL and Al Qaeda have overwhelmingly targeted Muslim-majority countries in recent years. Up-to-the minute data of global terror victims doesn’t exist, but the countries that saw the most deaths from terrorism in 2014, the last year that full data was available, are overwhelmingly Muslim.”
Quartz provides a list of ‘where terrorism has killed the most people in 2014’:
Iraq – 9,929 deaths
Nigeria – 7,512 deaths (50% Muslim, under siege by Boko Haram)
Afghanistan – 4,505 deaths
Pakistan – 1,760 deaths
Syria – 1,698 deaths
