ANKARA - Turkish General Staff Chief Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said Monday terrorist organizations carrying out legal or illegal activities in foreign countries to find money or deceive people to join them should be considered as international terrorist organizations.
"Otherwise, fight against global terrorism will lose ground," Buyukanit told the Global Terrorism & International Cooperation Symposium at Ankara`s Bilkent Hotel.
"Supporting terrorism is equal to feeding a venomous snake," Buyukanit said. "You can never make sure that the snake would not bite the feeder. The boomerang effect of terrorism will sooner or later harm collaborators of terrorism."
He said researches revealed that terrorist organizations could not survive without external support, and this support could vary from giving shelter to terrorists to conniving at their illegal activities.
Buyukanit said all people or countries giving aid to terrorist organizations, are as responsible as these organizations for their terrorist acts.
"It would be useless to talk about international cooperation unless we all have that consciousness of responsibility," he stated.
(TÇ-MS)