November 2015 Paris Attack

The third terrorism attack that will be discussed is the terrorism attack that happened in Paris
on 13th November 2015. It is considered as one of the deadliest attack that took place in
France since World War II. It had been in media coverage last November alerting every
country in the world. This terrorist attack consists of a multitude consecutive attacks that
took place in Paris and its northern suburb, Saint-Denis. The series of attacks include suicide
bombings, shooting at cafes, restaurant and music venue. The casualty from this catastrophic
terror attack is 130 people were killed along with 368 people being injured. Seven attackers
also died during these attacks. (RTE,2015)

21: 20 - First
suicide bombing
happened
outside stadium,
Stade de France

21:25 - Gun
attack at
restaurant and
bar in Rue Albert

21:30 - Second
suicide bombing
outside stadium,
Stade de France

21:40 - Suicide
bombing at a
restaurant in
Boulevard
Voltaire

21:36 - Gun
attack at a bar
in Rue de
Charonne

21:32 - Shooting
near restaurant
and bar in Rue
de la Fontaine au
Roi

21:53 - Third
suicide bombing
outside stadium,
Stade de France

21:40-00:20 Bataclan concert

hall attack

Figure 1: Chronological Order of Paris Terror Attack (Source: BBC, 2015)

The terrorist attack commenced at 9:20 pm with the chronological orders of the Paris attack
being laid out in Figure 1. The three hours terrorist attack happened as early as 9:20 pm and
ended at 12:20 am. At 9:20 pm, the first explosion occurred outside the stadium where there
was an international friendly match between Germany and France. When the first explosion
happened, the people inside the stadium were not aware of the dangerous situation. President
of France, Francois Hollande who was also inside the stadium were informed about the
explosion and evacuated the stadium at half-time. It was believed the suicide bomber initially
intended to carry out the suicide mission plan inside the stadium, but was fortunately stopped
by the guard from entering the stadium. Instead, the suicide bomber detonated his suicide
bomb outside the stadium where an unfortunate bystander was killed alongside him. The
other two suicide bombers that detonated themselves near Stadium at 9:30 pm and 9:53 pm
were also believed aiming the people from the stadium. (Wagner,2015)
There was also a series of shooting or also known as gun attack that were carried out at
restaurants and bars. Obviously, the terrorist aimed at public and crowded places where there
are many people. The restaurants and bars where the shooting occurred are located at Rue
Albert, Rue de la Fontaine Au Roi and Rue de Charonne. A sum of 39 people was killed
during the gun attack. Besides the gun attack, a suicide bombing also took place at a
restaurant in Boulevard Voltaire in which a person was heavily injured.
The last location where the deadliest terror attack happened during that night was at Bataclan
Theatre. The attack that took place at Bataclan Theatre had ferociously killed 89 lives of the
innocent individuals. There were 1,500 people presented at the theatre where a band from
America Eagles of Death Metal was playing. The attack at Bataclan Theatre includes
massacre shooting and hostage-taking. According to witnesses that were there during the
attack, they heard shouts of Allahu Akbar before the terrorists started shooting. The
opened fire took around 20 minutes before the attackers took the concertgoers hostages. The
terror finally came to an end when the police shot one of the attackers and his suicide bomb
detonated. This incident followed by the other two attackers blowing themselves up. (Phipps
et al., 2015)

Figure 2 : The after effects of the Paris Attack

Causes of Paris Attack

The perpetrator of this terror attack is found to be ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Levant) or
also known as IS, and ISIS. ISIL has claimed the responsibility for the attack with Fabien
Clain personally released a video a day before the attacks claiming the responsibility for the
attack.

Fabien Clain is known as a veteran jihadist in ISIL with a French nationality.

(Robinson, 2015). There were three teams from ISIL that executed the attack which include
three people in one team. They wore explosive vests and belts that have similar detonators in
which the detonators are acetone peroxide. Most of the attackers were found to be European
citizen with French nationality and Belgium nationality. There are apparently many European
citizens that had joined ISIL. (Richards, 2015) According to the Los Angeles Time, there
were more than 3,000 Europeans who went all the way to Syria to join ISIL and other radical
groups. Regarding this attack, President of France, Francois Hollande believed that the terror
attack was planned by ISIL in Syria, organised in Belgium and executed by the ISIL member
that has European citizenship. (Al Jazeera, 2015)
The terror attack is believed to be an act of retaliation for airstrikes on ISIL in Syria and Iraq
by the US-led coalition army. France which is one of the first to join the US-led coalition
army was the target for the ISIL. (Elgot et al., 2015) It seems like the terror attack was a
warning given to France and other US-led coalition army to stop sending airstrikes on ISIL. It
was also speculated that the reason for the attack is due to the foreign policy of Hollande
related to Muslims worldwide. This can be supported by the witness who was inside the
Bataclan Theatre that heard one of the gunmen yelled in French This is because of all harm
done by Hollande to Muslims all over the world (Nimmo, 2015)

U
E IZE
IT N
C

Figure 3: The attackers involved in Paris terror attack in which most of them are European
citizen
Effects from Paris Attack
The terror attack has led France to put its country under state of emergency which means
the borders were temporarily closed and soldiers were sent to aid the police in maintaining
the order in Paris. During this state of emergency, public demonstrations were also banned
and the police were allowed to do searches without a warrant. (Griffin, 2015) This devastated
incident also made France to declare 3 days of national mourning where everyone gathered to
pay respect for the innocent victims. (WWD, 2015) Numerous heads of state and government
along with United Nations offered messages of condolence and solidarity in the wake of the

attacks. Furthermore, every public places including all the parks and tourist sites were closed.
Due to safety concerns, the UK and U.S government issued travel warnings to Paris. Several
musicians such as U2, Foo Fighters and Prince who were supposed to perform in Paris had
cancelled their concerts. (Deborah,2015)

Figure 4: National mourning in Paris

In response to this attack, there were several visible effects that can be seen especially
regarding the safety of the country and patriotism of the citizen. One of them is the border
controls have been tightened for European citizens entering or leaving, with passport checks
and systematic screening against biometric databases . The European officials have also reevaluated their stance on EU policy towards the migrants. (Dawber, 2015) Besides that,
applications to join the army have also increased from 100 to 150 per day to 1500 per day on
the following week after the attack. (Alderman, 2015)The Paris attack has also an indirect
effect to other countries as they feared over the safety of their own country. For instance, the
cities in United States took security precautions especially at a public place and Singapore
has elevated its national security alert level, increasing border checks and security across the
city-state. (Schmidt, 2015; Fai, 2016)
The Paris attacks executed by a radical Islamist group have lead the Parisians being
concerned over the probable marginalisation of Muslims in the city. The Islamophobe
community had shown themselves through social media blaming the religion and Muslims
for the terror attacks. (Sivier, 2015) According to French daily, Le Parisien, over the weekend
after the attack, there were red crosses painted onto a wall of an eastern Paris mosque . There
were also slogans written of the wall of other mosques around the city that read France,
wake up! and Death of Muslims. (Melander & Heneghan, 2016) This shows that the
Muslims especially those who reside in Paris were negatively affected by the terror attack
that was not even done by them.

Regarding the economic impacts of the terror attack, the impacts are more of short-term
impacts than long term impacts. France eventually replenished their economic situation.
However, there was a huge negative short term impact on the economy of France especially
at the early period after the terror attack. For instance, the tourism industry of France which is
one of the largest sector of French economy was largely affected by the horrific attacks.
According to French treasury, the attacks cost the economy around $2.1 billion and these are
mainly due to the restrained tourism and decrease in consumer spending pattern. (Karaian,
2016) The decline in consumer spending pattern happened due to the psychological impacts
imposed on the individual. This includes being afraid to go to public places and chose to stay
at home instead.

Ankara Attack
The fourth and last terrorist attack that will be discussed is the terrorist attack that took place
in Ankara, Turkey. Turkey had been experiencing some misfortune events lately where there
were several terrorist attacks happened there. Ankara which is the capital city of Turkey was
one of the aimed locations for terrorism to occur besides Suruc, Istanbul and other cities in
Turkey. In Ankara, there had been a total of 3 terrorist attacks which happened on 10 th
October 2015, 17th February 2016, and 13th March 2016. The terrorist attacks that will be
discussed here is the October 2015 Ankara Bombing and the latest March 2015 Ankara
Bombing.

October
2015 Ankara
Bombing
February
2016 Ankara
Bombing
March 2016
Ankara
Bombing
Figure 5 : The terrorist attacks that happened in Ankara, Turkey

October 2015 Ankara Bombing

The terrorist attack that happened in Ankara on 10 th October 2015 is the deadliest attack in
modern Turkish history. Two suicide bombs were detonated at a pro-Kurdish peace rally with
the first suicide bomb detonated at 10:40 am when the rally participant was singing an
anthem. This was followed by a second suicide bomb being detonated a few seconds later.
The casualty from this bombing is 103 people were killed along with 400 people being
injured. This terrorist attack was seemingly aimed at a pro-Kurdish peace rally that was held
to protest against the growing conflict between the Turkish Armed Forces and the
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). (Letsch & Khomami, 2015)

Figure 6 : Suicide bombing at a peace rally in Ankara

Causes of October 2015 Ankara Bombing
No organisation has yet claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack that happened on 10 th
October 2015. However, one of the two suicide bombers was officially identified as Sheikh
Abdulrahman Alayz, which is the younger brother of the attacker of the Suruc Bombing.
(Reuters, 2015) The Suruc Bombing that took place on July 2015 had killed 33 people in
which the attack was allegedly executed by ISIL group. Both of the brothers had suspected
links with ISIL. (Akkoc, 2015) Thus, Turkeys Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has singled
out ISIL group as the prime suspect.
There are a few probable reasons that ISIL could have carried out the attacks and one of them
is to hurt the Kurds. (BBC,2016) The Kurds also known as Kurdish people is an ethnic group
in Middle East which includes Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Most of the Kurds live in Turkey.
The reason that ISIL would want to hurt the Kurds is due to the Kurdish forces that are
fighting ISIL in both Syria and Iraq. Lately, ISIL has been losing 25% of its territory because
of the Kurdish forces that are fighting against them in Syria and Iraq. (Martinez, 2016) Thus,
that could be an obvious reason for ISIL attacking the Kurdish people at the pro-Kurdish
peace rally.
Other than that, another alleged reason is probably because ISIL wanted to hurt the Turkish
government. Recently, Turkish government lend a helping hand to US in fighting against
ISIL. For instance, Turkey recently agreed to allow US fighter aircraft used its strategicallylocated Incirlic airbase to launch bombing raids on ISIL territory in Syria and Iraq. (The
Guardian, 2015; Cooper, 2015) On top of that, the Turkish government had reported to have
tightened control over its border with Syria which makes it alot harder for ISIL fighters to
cross. (Spencer, 2015) Therefore, those reasons stated also makes a lot of sense if the ISIL
were aimed to hurt the Turkish government
Effects from October 2015 Ankara Bombing
Similar to the Paris attack, three days of national mourning were also declared in Turkey by
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. (Arango, 2015) Many heads of state and government also
offered messages of condolence and solidarity in the wake of the attacks. Because the
terrorist attack happened 21 days before the general election, various parties cancelled their
election campaigns. (Hurriyetdailynews,2015) The major impact from this terror attack is on

the political situation in Turkey. This attack has poisoned an already volatile political
atmosphere and also aggravated the relations between the state and Kurdishs group. (Lister,
2015) Government of Turkey had been on an ongoing conflict with the Kurdish groups since
1978 in which the Kurdish group had been fighting for an independent state of their own with
their own autonomy. Peace has not yet been established between the Turkish government and
Kurdish group. In the afternoon following the terror attack, thousands of union members
protested at Taksim Square in Istanbul against the bombing. The participants chanted antigovernment slogans and demanded the AKP government party and Turkeys president,
Erdogan to resign. The protestors blamed the government for the attack by heavily criticizing
their security failure. (Tattersal, 2015)
March 2016 Ankara Bombing
The latest terrorist attack in Ankara happened on 13 th March 2016. This terror attack involves
a car that was filled with explosives and it targeted buses that carried civilians. The car
suicide bombing took place at 6:53 pm around the bus stop at Ataturk Boulevard in Ankara.
The casualties from this attack are 37 people were killed with 125 people injured. (Letsch,
2016)

Figure 7: Car suicide bombing at a bus hub in Ankara

Causes of March 2016 Ankara Bombing

Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) which is one of the Kurdishs rebel group claimed
responsibility for this terror attack. TAK also holds accountable for the previous Ankara

Bombing in February 2016 that had killed 30 people. The perpetrator was found to be a 24
years old female student with the name of Seher Cagla Demir. She is known to have joined
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) , another Kurdish Rebel group in 2013 and had received
training in Syria. It is believed that this terror attack was an act of revenge for the Turkish
military operations in Kurdish City of Cizre in South-East Turkey. TAK apparently claimed
that they targeted security forces and apologized for civilian casualties. They also warmed
that further civilian casualties were inevitable. (Letsch, 2016; Botelho, 2016)
Effects from March 2016 Ankara Bombing
Due to the consecutive terror attacks that happened in Turkey in general, Turkey has been
marked as a country that is dangerous to travel at the moment. It is known as a country that
has a high threat from terrorism. (Paris & Morris, 2016)It does not help that there are a
several terrorist groups that are active in Turkey. Since 2015 until now, Turkey has been
attacked by ISIL, PKK and TAK. (Michek, 2016) The March bombing had also made people
worried over the ability of the local security forces in preventing future terror attacks. After
the attack, the streets and malls were almost deserted and it was reported that Ankamall has
experienced 50% decrease in visitor. (Al-Monitor,2016) This concern increases the risk of
negative effects on national tourist and travel sectors. According to Tourism Ministry data,
tourism of Turkey actually fell 10.32% year-on-year in February to 1.24 million, which is the
biggest drop since October 2006. Economists have also forecasted that Turkeys tourism
revenue will drop by a quarter this year, costing Turkey around $8 billion. (Devranoglu &
Nolan, 2016)

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