Something's Rotten in the State of Turkey

"Sociologically speaking, it all starts with those signs."
"Some of those people who are declaring sympathy ... might easily get radicalized."
Ahmet Kasim Han, Istanbul University, Turkey

"If anyone will be called to account, it will not be those who wage jihad. It will be the collaborators and the so-called imperialists who find refuge behind NATO, the UN and the U.S."
Turkish conservative Haksoz magazine

"Of course we're stressed. What can you feel when an organization that terrorizes the Middle East enters your school?"
Ulas Suder, 20-year-old archaeology major, Istanbul University

In the main hall of Istanbul University, as a science fair was in place, left-wing students reacted to the presence of masked young men striding across the Department of Literature floor, shouting "Allahu akbar!" Twenty-one-year-old Aysegul Kirkut described what happened as she and others began hurling bottles and getting them tossed right back at them. "I couldn't understand what was happening at first. I was shocked", she said.

VIDEO: Islamists attack students protesting ISIL at Istanbul University

This first in a series of fights that took place on September 26 at Istanbul University's Beyazit campus has been followed since then by repeated violence. These are conflicts reflecting signs of support for Islamic State that have been appearing across Istanbul. The city of 14-million people is diverse in their politics, so perhaps it shouldn't be surprised with the Islamist Justice and Development Party of  Present Recep Tayyip Erdogan that pockets of Islamic State supporters pop up here and there.

There are sightings of Islamic State support right across the city, with a black flag hanging from a window, or a sticker on a rear windshield of a car, or an Islamic State gift shop selling T-shirts and sportswear emblazoned with Islamic State's emblem. What does seem evident is that those supporting the Islamist jihadists who have shocked the world with their evident relish for brutal slaughter is that in the absence of official condemnation, sympathizers feel free to publicly proclaim their admiration of ISIS/ISIL.

At a jihad-themed bookstore located a few blocks from the university campus, magazines with a featured photograph of Osama bin-Laden and memoirs of Ibn Khattab, the Chechen jihadist, are on display, along with pins with the ISIS black-and-white flag. Global Books' owner Osman Akyildiz claims that university students and alumni represent his most enthusiastic customers. As far as he is concerned, jihadists shouldn't be called terrorists.

Global Books' owner, Osman Akyıldız, says students
and alumni are his biggest customers. AP Photo

"For everyone the definition of terrorist is different. According to us they are heroes", he proudly proclaims. The clash of September 26 at the university was provoked, it would seem, by a left-wing group placing a poster in the main hall of the Department of Literature denouncing the slaughter boastfully carried out by"IS gangs". Then, in the early afternoon, the masked men entered with an ultimatum: take it down or face the consequences.

The consequences were swift in arriving as the Islamic State supporters with their black masks and baseball caps shouted insults at the left-wing students before hurling projectiles. "Security! Why are you just watching?" screamed one student. "Why aren't you taking them away?" And there are questions; how it was that the men were able to enter the campus since entry requires university identification.

In this photo taken on Sept. 30, 2014, a student puts the finishing touches on an anti-ISIL poster at Istanbul University's Department of Literature. AP Photo / Raphael Stratter

These defenders and admirers of Islamic State make no effort to be furtive, covert, lest they be apprehended, since no one in authority appears interested in preventing their activities. As of September 30, a contingent of riot police, some carrying sub-machine guns, some wearing body armour, stationed themselves outside the Literature department.

Left-wing students now pass to and from campus in numbers, citing safety concerns.