scot scotland scottish Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 I was trying to say is you have to make personal judgement calls with life. For me, North Africa is off for me. Just too dicey. Especially with the current situations and conflict in the Middle East. Bizarrely I did my dissertation on terrorism on tourism back in 2003. What surprises me is that we haven't had more attacks on tourists in situ. They are traditionally a soft target and give the terrorists maximum shock impact. It has shown what a small driven terrorist can achieve with the relatively small price of an AK and their life. Not saying stay in your house and huddle in the corner, just make a judgement. J No bother and your quite entitled to your opinion - an opinion you seem well informed upon in order to make. But I just think a sense of perspective is required - there's 20,000 Brits over there just now and presumably over the course of the year hundreds of thousands will visit. A mad man on one afternoon has attacked and killed a tiny fraction of them. It's worth remembering a very similar thing happened in Cumbria a few years back. I don't recall any mad rush by anyone to leave Whitehaven, nor did anyone stop visiting the Lake District Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Laud Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Well i think turkey will be the next place for a terrorist attack.just saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euan2020 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 eWell i think turkey will be the next place for a terrorist attack.just saying. PKK have been doing terror attacks last 20 years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey%E2%80%93PKK_conflict Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killiefaetheferry Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Well i think turkey will be the next place for a terrorist attack.just saying. You're not suggesting a sweepie are you ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristolhibby Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 No bother and your quite entitled to your opinion - an opinion you seem well informed upon in order to make. But I just think a sense of perspective is required - there's 20,000 Brits over there just now and presumably over the course of the year hundreds of thousands will visit. A mad man on one afternoon has attacked and killed a tiny fraction of them. It's worth remembering a very similar thing happened in Cumbria a few years back. I don't recall any mad rush by anyone to leave Whitehaven, nor did anyone stop visiting the Lake District Thing is, unlike Cumbria (which was a mad man) this was a legitimate terrorist attack. Not perpetrated by mad men, but radical killers. An attack against the Wests soft underbelly, tourists in situ. They are relatively unprotected, congregated in one area and as was shown on Friday, suseptable to a motivated gunman attack. It's been done in Luxor, Mumbai and now Tunisia. The Political situation would have made me wary, they were on the back of their own Arab Spring, with a government attempting to rebuild its tourist industry. It had a similar tourist targeted attack back in March, (which got little air time here). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo_National_Museum_attack This was all highlighting the ability of a terrorist cell to strike. Not only do these attacks destabilise the tourist industry, but directly attacks the government in Tunis. Taking a massive wack out of its tourist receipts, further destabilising the current government. Turkey as has been pointed out has been fighting a similar war for years. However it is a relatively stable "Western" NATO power with massive security/military presence. I would be more relaxed going to Turkey. However, again weigh up your options. Me personally, I'm heading to rural France this year. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killiefaetheferry Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 France will be fine. Never in a million years would I have been going to Tunisia though. Egypt is on my no go list aswell. Morocco may well be in it too, although I really want to go to Marrakesh. J Tripadvisor forum for Morocco suggests that it has been 'safe'. Comments that the border is very well guarded and little or no 'radicalisation'. We are at risk of not differentiating between individual countries in North Africa, and assuming that the risks are equal in Tunisia/Algeria/Morocco. Not saying it's safe btw, just that it might have better security and less 'radicals'. Need to read up as I don't have any more info than a quick look on Tripadvisor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristolhibby Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Tripadvisor forum for Morocco suggests that it has been 'safe'. Comments that the border is very well guarded and little or no 'radicalisation'. We are at risk of not differentiating between individual countries in North Africa, and assuming that the risks are equal in Tunisia/Algeria/Morocco. Not saying it's safe btw, just that it might have better security and less 'radicals'. Need to read up as I don't have any more info than a quick look on Tripadvisor. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Marrakesh_bombing Again, tourists. I know we can talk about 7/7, but I have more confidence in our security services over say Moroccos. And 7/7 wasn't a tourist strike, it was a random attack on the country's people. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killiefaetheferry Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Agreed needs serious consideration, but on that logic it's just as risky going to London. I'm avoiding both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristolhibby Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Agreed needs serious consideration, but on that logic it's just as risky going to London. I'm avoiding both. With London is they (the security services) are seriously tooled up to cope with something like this. Within minutes there can be an armed response (shit, even some beat coppers carry weapons). However play the numbers game 5m-ish people in London, how many have died through Islamist terror attacks in the last 15 years? 50-60. Pretty safe IMHO. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killiefaetheferry Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Understood. Returning from menorca via Madrid for 24 hours later this year and paused for thought about it, but where do you stop........which I suppose is part of the whole 'terrorise' theory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HIGHTOWER 1314 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 I read last week that kobani in syria had been retaken from the kurds and isis attacked the town from TURKEY.Where the feck was the turkish army who did such a great job guarding unarmed civilians.They should have prevented this happenening but prob stood by and watched it unfold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristolhibby Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 I read last week that kobani in syria had been retaken from the kurds and isis attacked the town from TURKEY.Where the feck was the turkish army who did such a great job guarding unarmed civilians.They should have prevented this happenening but prob stood by and watched it unfold. It's a weird one, and shows what a basket case the situation is. The Turks hate the Kurds as much as/more than ISIS. They have been fighting Kurds for decades and fear a powerful Kurdish homeland within their borders. One of my Dads mates was in the RAF after the first Gulf war and during the operation to deny flight over Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. You had the bizzare situation of RAF fighters protecting Kurds in Iraq, while from the same airfield Turkish F-16s were taking off to bomb Kurds in Turkey. Mental! J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally Bongo Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 British dead in Tunisia expected to be at least 30 per the BBC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hertsscot Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 PKK have been doing terror attacks last 20 years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey–PKK_conflict I don't think too many though have been directed at tourists although I remember a bus bombing in Kusadasi a couple of years after I'd enjoyed a family holiday there. I guess hitting tourists would be counterproductive as the Kurds want western support unlike ISIS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hunchy Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Well i think turkey will be the next place for a terrorist attack.just saying. That's my thinking as well. For all the Turks have a strong security presence on the border it is where most wester Isis recruits go through. Wouldn't take much to go the other way and head for on of the many tourist resorts and cause carnage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirk Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Aparently Jet2 have been absolutley useless in trying to help get their customers home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brant grebner Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I read last week that kobani in syria had been retaken from the kurds and isis attacked the town from TURKEY.Where the feck was the turkish army who did such a great job guarding unarmed civilians.They should have prevented this happenening but prob stood by and watched it unfold. It's a weird one, and shows what a basket case the situation is. The Turks hate the Kurds as much as/more than ISIS. They have been fighting Kurds for decades and fear a powerful Kurdish homeland within their borders. One of my Dads mates was in the RAF after the first Gulf war and during the operation to deny flight over Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. You had the bizzare situation of RAF fighters protecting Kurds in Iraq, while from the same airfield Turkish F-16s were taking off to bomb Kurds in Turkey. Mental! J I'm not going to pretend I'm some sort of expert on what's going with Turkey/Kurds/ISIS/Syria, but Qatar is one of the main players. More than Saudi. Qatar is a ing awful country - richest world state per capita and a Salafi state with no regard for non-Muslim human life. Qatar has huge LPG reserves that it wants to sell to the West but it's got no direct route. Qatar's been angling to get a LPG pipeline built from Qatar via Syria to Turkey to the Med and beyond. Syria sell their oil and gas to Russia and didnae want the pipeline. Qatar has been bankrolling Wahabi/Salafi (same thing) groups from West Africa to Sri Lanka for the last 5 years. Since then, they've chucked a tonne of cash at Syrian groups of can't-read-the-Quran-but-tell-me-more-Mister-handless-cleric angry/pent-up-horny young Muslim men (who've been funded in to being a viable and uncontrollable entity who we call ISIS/ISL/ISIL) all with a view to destabilising Assad to get the him and his regime out of power and get the pipeline built. The Kurds have been wanting a sovereign homeland since Ataturk created Turkey and rather impatiently went straight away on the blow-up-strangers-make-us-free tip rather than holding off until the circumstances were right and opting for the SNP's civic and democratic cult route. Turkey is sitting on it's arse for good reasons: For all the claims that Turkey is a secular nation, outside of the tourist areas/Istanbul it's a seriously Muslim country. It's a predominantly Sunni country. Not Salafi Sunni country by any stretch though. Salafism is a Sunni sect like the Westboro Baptist Church is a Proddy sect. There's no love lost between the Kurds and the Turks and if the Kurds are wiping themselves out against ISIS then so be it; better the Kurds do it there and Turkish troops watch on indirectly. The principle reason - Turkey wants and needs the pipeline.Turkey is a massive country and it's one of the few countries worldwide that could rely on autarky if need be, but it wants EU trade status and controlling the non-Russian supply of LPG in to the EU would eliminate the objections that are holding it back currently. How to resolve it then? The West could forego oil and gas, invest in nuclear and renewable energy and give up the dependence on OPEC petroleum. The West could secure the Red Sea with a combination of military intervention and industrial investment to maintain the dependence on OPEC oil by allowing safe passage. The West could invoke a UN intervention by lying about Assad á la Saddam and then send c.500k people born in to poverty to act as boots on the ground to wipe out the crazy ISIS nuts in trench warfare. or... The West could develop and supply a new strain of MDMA pills - these ISIS twats are all illiterate sex crazed AK47 wielders who cannae get their hole and go mental. From what I've seen on "Songs Of Praise", Islam is a mental 600 year after-the-fact breakaway sect of Christianity devised by a ego'd up towel headed alpha male who wanted to beast his 9 year old niece and wouldnae munch on carrion. He was dead set against boozing, but pills n spliff wirnae on his agenda. Even as an atheist, I have unquestionable faith that yer gay boy Jesus a better laugh and far more empathetic. What we need to do is air-drop 40 million pills into Syria and then provide discount Damascus holidays for fat hoors from the West to go there and gobble them to peace. We just need Evian to sponsor 40 million bottles of water and some decent bands/djs T in The Park in Syria - problem for Perth Council - sorted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flora MaDonald Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Clever lad, Brant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirk Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 72 hookers by NOFX tells you how to solve the problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scunnered Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 72 hookers by NOFX tells you how to solve the problem And its scarily close to Brants post, and I'd wager he's never heard it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orraloon Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 During the world cup in '98 there was bother with French Arabs in Paris and St Etienne. They are sleekit cockwombles. We were staying in Saint Denis in amongst Tunisians, Moroccans, Algerians and Allah knows what other nationalities. Never saw any bother at all. We had a great time with the "Arabs", and I don't mean United supporters - they were miserable as fuk - as usual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glasgowmancity Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Been announced today that another Scottish couple were killed in Tunisia. They were from Blackwood in Perthshire & he was a turnstyle operator at McDiarmaid Park apparently Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormond Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Been announced today that another Scottish couple were killed in Tunisia. They were from Blackwood in Perthshire & he was a turnstyle operator at McDiarmaid Park apparently Yes, it was the couple that had been shared all over social media as their daughter was desperate to find them. Saints released this statement yesterday. http://www.perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk/newsitemsdetail.php?param=3633 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armchair Bob Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Brant - yer clown mask slips sometimes and the quality shines out - good effort at trying to trivialise a profound post mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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