Tragedy marks
the end of the year. The attack in Berlin and the assassination in Ankara have
once again proved that no European country stands alone in the face of
terrorism. After a truck ran into the people attending a Christmas street fair
in the German capital city on the night of December 19, the presidential
adviser Bogdan Aurescu sent condolences, on behalf of Romania’s presidency, to
the mourning families, the German authorities and the German people as a whole,
for the innocent victims of this unimaginable tragedy.
In turn, PM Dacian Ciolos
sent a condolence letter to the federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, voicing the
Romanians’ solidarity with the German people at this difficult time. Romania,
reads the letter, firmly condemns any act of terrorism and pleads for
coordinated and determined international efforts to fight them.
Attackers may
strike anywhere, including in Romania, although the risk of violence on
Romanian territory is lower than in the countries standing at the forefront of
the fight against the Islamic State terror group, analysts say. The foreign
security expert Dan Claudiu Degeratu, quoted by the daily Adevarul, emphasises
the advantages that Romania has, compared to other European countries: it
receives fewer refugees and it still has a positive image in the Middle East.
Moreover, the Islamic community in Romania is not radicalised. On the other
hand, in Germany, which has received more than a million refugees, the
situation is different.
Here is Professor Stefan Popescu:
The fact that for so long, throughout 2015 and in the first half of 2016,
Germany had an open door policy with respect to refugees, does not make it less
vulnerable. On the contrary, it is even more exposed… and it was the first time
it had been targeted by violence, although it did not deploy combat forces in
sub-Saharan Africa or the Middle East and Near East, as is the case with
France.
The situation in
Syria was the pretext of the assassination in cold blood of the Russian
Ambassador to Ankara, Andrei Karlov, in a shooting that the Russian Foreign Ministry
has defined as terrorist. The presidential adviser Bogdan Aurescu spoke about
an outrageous act, while PM Dacian Ciolos pointed out that such barbaric
acts targeting diplomatic representatives have no justification and must be
countered at all costs.
In a letter sent
to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, the Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar
Comanescu also emphasised the importance of the efforts to fight terrorism and
to prosecute the perpetrators. Don’t forget Aleppo. Don’t forget Syria. Unless
our towns are secure, you won’t enjoy security, the perpetrator of the attack
in Ankara shouted as he opened fire on the Ambassador of Russia, a country
directly involved in the clashes in that Arab state.