In the Middle East, the forces of ISIS are starting to decline. They are losing many of their strongholds, their forces are weakening and their influence in Syria and Iraq is not as fearsome as it once was. In December, the Iraqi defense minister even claimed that ISIS has lost 40% of their territory. Their decline is shocking to most because a year ago they were making threats to take Baghdad. Now, it seems that their forces will be defeated within the next year or two.
Though they may be weakening, the impact they have left is still as strong and influential. Their army may be crumbling, their ideology still stands, calling people to die for their cause. In order to keep sending out their message, they will have to revert to the front they have been most successful: the cyber world.
After the failed coup last weekend, ISIS has found Turkey to be a fertile recruiting ground for gaining support. In a video they released aiming to recruit Turkish citizens, they have been able to gather over 100,000 views on social media platforms including Youtube and Facebook. One of the main messages in this video is that, “you can serve the Islamic State where you are.” This message being spread in Turkey, especially now after the failed coup, is a very troubling to the country.
In the past, ISIS would send out messages through social media to call people to their jihad and migrate to Syria and Iraq to join the fight. Though their hold on the countries is now weaker than it has ever been, they are not spreading that message to Turkey. To ISIS, Turkey is seen as their next stronghold because they know they can get a lot of support there since the coup has failed to overthrow Erdogan. They also are willing to fight the Turkish government because of the way it treats religion. The Islamic State stated that the religion in Turkey is not true Islam, but instead “a democratic religion bereft of jihad as decided by its parliament and approved by the USA.”
Lacking the forces, they are now doing everything they can to gain support in Turkey by using social media. There is now an increasing amount of Turkish content in their messages. For example, they have been sending sympathetic messages towards anti-PKK supporters (NOTE: PKK is the Kurdistan Workers Party in Turkey, which also have been acting as a terrorist organization operating in the South Eastern part of Turkey). They have also been sending messages supporting religious-nationalist groups for the armed struggle waged by the international forces operating in Syria.
Unfortunately, this tactic is working. In some of the more rural and economically deprived areas of Turkey, ISIS influence is seeping into small communities. With their messages sympathetic to most Turks, the idea of revitalizing Islam in Turkey and of course, the promise of keeping the "war booty," Turks are being convinced to join ISIS and even motivate their families and friends to also join the cause.
So now Turkey is faced with the difficult challenge of defeating ISIS and their cyber terrorism. Sadly, Turkey still doesn’t have a comprehensive cybersecurity mindset which protects both the government and personal internet users. In the past, the Turkish government has been known to block certain websites to ensure that no anti-government messages were being spread through social media, but that was a direct violation of democratic rights and the European Union did not condone this practice. Though this practice is being stopped (or at least not as bad as it once was), ISIS is using cyber terrorism to try and win support from Turkey.
Though the body of ISIS is dying, its message is as strong as ever in the cyber world. Now, it looks like the next front of their jihad will take place in the Turkish cyberspace.
