Reina Istanbul nightclub is symbol of everything ISIS hate about modern Turkey

The Reina nightclub is an emblem of all the pieces Islamists hate about fashionable Turkey – enjoyable, rich and unashamedly decadent.

At weekends, costly sports activities automobiles again up alongside the coast highway on which it sits, and tremendous yachts queue on the dock on the Bosporous waterfront.

The illuminated dance flooring is at all times filled with stunning, scantily-dressed ladies and the bars are stocked with pricey liquor.

Victims: Bouncer and mother-of-one Hatice Koc'un (left) was among the many 39 individuals who have been gunned down throughout the Reina nightclub New Years Eve celebration. Leanne Nasser (proper) was on vacation with three mates when she was killed

Bono and spouse Alison Hewson pictured on the nightclub with Reina supervisor Mehmet Kocarslan

The lone gunman who slaughtered 39 revellers at Reina's New 12 months's Eve celebration was attacking not simply Istanbul's secular, sinful elite – but in addition the very concept that Turkey generally is a fashionable, Westernised nation.

What's extra, the assault struck on the coronary heart of Turkey's already beleaguered vacationer business, making a mockery of presidency claims that it will possibly assure the safety of its personal residents, not to mention guests.

Within the run-up to New 12 months's Eve, Istanbul authorities boasted that they might be deploying 17,000 safety personnel to guard the town – but a lone jihadi gunman was in a position to shoot his means into the town's most unique and most safe nightclub.

The roll name of the useless reveals simply how worldwide and numerous Istanbul has change into. 

However now, terror is the norm. One sufferer, safety guard Fatih Çakmak, survived a bombing at a soccer stadium in Istanbul on December 10 that killed 45, solely to die on the doorways of Reina.

The timing of this assault was symbolic. Final month posters appeared in conservative areas of Istanbul denouncing the celebration of Western festivities. 

The gunman, believed to be captured by CCTV left and proper, rained down 'a hail of bullets' on the New 12 months revellers and continues to be on the run

'We're Muslims,' learn the banners, which featured a musclebound Muslim punching Father Christmas. 'No to New 12 months's Eve and Christmas celebrations.'

Although Turkey's directorate of spiritual affairs was fast to sentence the assault, it exposes deep divisions in Turkey between a spiritual and conservative majority and the secular, Westernised elite.

For a lot of the historical past of recent Turkey, Islam was formally suppressed. Even the sporting of Muslim headscarves was banned in faculties, universities and authorities workplaces.

However since he got here to energy, Turkey's strongman president Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who served time in jail in 1999 for his Islamist views – has steadily eroded the secular state and promoted Islamist supporters. As Erdogan has grown stronger, authorities have cracked down on consumption of alcohol.

The Reina nightclub opened in 2002, the identical yr Erdogan got here to energy. In his first decade in workplace, Erdogan presided over a threefold improve in Turkey's GDP – prosperity that ensured his recognition.

The increase additionally saved Reina filled with wealthy revellers, who may select between the membership's Italian restaurant, an Asian eaterie or a Turkish part that served kebabs grilled theatrically on four-foot skewers that ran the size of an extended desk – washed down with cocktails at Mayfair costs.

Reina turned an emblem not solely of Turkey's wealth but in addition its worldwide enchantment. Western media heralded 'Cool Istanbul – Europe's hippest metropolis' in a Newsweek cowl story illustrated with a photograph of unique dancers at Reina.

Photographs from inside Istanbul's packed Reina membership present completely satisfied partygoers celebrating moments earlier than the gunman stormed the venue with an AK-47

Reina's has change into an emblem not solely of Turkey's wealth but in addition its worldwide enchantment

In the course of the membership's heyday my Istanbul flat was subsequent door to Reina. One night I noticed Daniel Craig on the bar, having fun with a break from filming Bond movie Skyfall.

Now, almost a decade-and-a-half after opening, Reina has come to symbolise a really totally different Turkey – one wherein Islamic fanatics are attempting to make sure the cultural warfare between secular and spiritual pursuits turns into an actual warfare of bloodshed and violence.

Within the wake of the assault Erdogan has promised to 'battle terrorism to the tip'. However Turkey's secular state is being undermined from exterior by Islamist terrorists and from inside by Erdogan's insurance policies.

On the similar time an inflow of greater than two million refugees from the Syrian battle has introduced a wave of Islamic militants, who've gunned down their enemies on the streets of Turkish cities.

Medics carry a wounded individual out of the membership after the assault on the unique nightclub

The lone gunman slaughtered 39 revellers throughout the New 12 months's Eve celebration and injured many extra

The steady, fast-growing, self-confident Turkey that gave the impression to be on observe to affix the European Union has, beneath Erdogan's watch, disintegrated.

However it isn't simply Islamic terrorists that he faces. Erdogan is cracking down on militants from Turkey's Kurdish inhabitants which has lengthy demanded a separate state. In September 2015, Kurdish rebels seized management of at the least 12 cities within the south-east of the nation and have been crushed again solely after heavy avenue combating.

Over the previous 18 months in Turkey there have been at the least 19 terror assaults by Islamist and Kurdish teams which have killed over 400 – together with the Russian ambassador to Turkey, gunned down on December 19 by a policemen shouting 'Allahu Akbar' and protesting in opposition to Russia's position in shoring up Syria's President Assad.

Along with the Kurds and Islamic State – whose assaults have shattered Turkey's financial system – Erdogan faces one other enemy. This July an abortive coup by pro-secular, anti-Erdogan forces within the navy noticed tanks on the streets of Istanbul and Ankara, and left greater than 200 useless.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim (pictured) revealed the gunman left his weapon contained in the venue and escaped by 'making the most of the chaos' that ensued

Erdogan imposed a state of emergency and arrested almost 60,000 individuals – a crackdown which not solely failed to stop additional terror assaults, however left his popularity, together with Turkey's hopes of becoming a member of the EU, in tatters. 

Final spring, German chancellor Angela Merkel brokered a deal that promised Turks visa-free entry to the EU in change for the nation stopping waves of migrants crossing its borders into Greece and Bulgaria – and bettering its human rights report.

However Erdogan's post-coup purge made a mockery of any such enchancment and wrecked the settlement. Meaning the flood of migrants pouring from Turkey into Europe is more likely to start once more.

The bullets and bombs of the previous few months have critically broken Erdogan, whose success has been constructed on his picture as a strongman and regular hand. And Turkey's popularity as a Westernised, tolerant Muslim democracy – in addition to a steady Nato ally – lies shattered among the many blood-soaked New 12 months decorations within the Reina nightclub.

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