Another Wake-up Call Against Open Borders

By Adriana Cohen

The horrific terror attack that left at least 39 New Year’s revelers dead inside a popular Turkish nightclub is the latest wake-up call for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose open-border policy has welcomed millions of Syrian refugees — and ISIS soldiers — and turned the nation into a “safe space” for jihadists.
And in exchange for his willingness to shelter those fleeing bloodshed in Syria, these Islamist extremists are “repaying” him by slaughtering civilians who are doing nothing more than living their lives at soft targets across the country.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel should be taking notes.
Since the brutal Syrian Civil War was sparked six years ago, 13.5 million Syrians have been displaced — millions of whom have streamed across the “open borders” of Turkey and neighboring Lebanon. And though the humanitarianism shown by the Turkish government is admired by many — especially those on the left — the practice of allowing people in without verifying who they are is putting innocent Turkish citizens at risk. Not to mention the foreigners who travel or work there.
And as the nation, which serves as a gateway to Europe, struggles to come to grips with a series of attacks launched by Kurdish militants and terrorists, President Erdogan described the latest shooting as an attempt to create chaos in Turkey, saying in a statement: “They are working to destroy our country’s morale and create chaos by deliberately targeting our nation’s peace and targeting civilians with these heinous attacks.”
While Turkey appears to be descending into chaos, anti-Trump forces in the United States are blasting the president-elect as a racist and bigot for saying he wants to temporarily ban Muslims from terror “hotbeds” from entering our country. Shockingly, many American liberals would prefer to be politically correct and “inclusive,” rather than pay attention to the deadly terror attacks being committed by “refugees” in Germany and Turkey.
These big-hearted liberals may certainly be well-intentioned, but they’d be smart to remember that, in life, sometimes nice guys finish last.
It’s looking more and more like Turkey — a NATO ally — will be wise to follow Trump’s lead and implement a “Turkey First” policy as a means of protecting its citizens. President Erdogan must address immigration, vulnerabilities, strengthen his nation’s strained relations with both the U.S. and Russia if he wants to snuff out ISIS at its root and prevent the next terror attack before it happens.
The clock is ticking.