States' institutional responses to international terrorism and victims' perceptions: Cases of Istanbul 2003 and London 2005 attacks

This study examines the institutional responses to international terrorism carried out by Turkey and the United Kingdom (UK) in the context of the 2003 Istanbul and 2005 London terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda, by analyzing the perceptions of victims of these attacks to the institutional responses of Turkey and the UK. Within this framework, this research is aimed at revealing potential interactions between institutional responses and victims' perceptions within the framework of relevant terrorist attacks in the context of sociological institutionalism. The research analyzes two cases in depth with a qualitative, inductive approach and attempts to blur the distinction between political and sociological perspective to terrorism studies by adopting an interdisciplinary approach. This study found that Turkey's long-term institutional responses and counterterrorism strategies were ineffective and needed to develop, and it was understood that, according to the interviewed victims and supportive interviews, victims also had a perception that institutional responses were ineffective. On the other hand, the UK's long-term institutional responses and counterterrorism strategies were found effective, and according to perceptions of interviewed victims, the institutional responses and counter-terrorism strategies were also effective. Thus, when both cases were evaluated in the framework of theory of sociological institutionalism based on the content of institutional responses and of the perceptions of victims of these institutional responses, it was found that there is a parallel between, on the one hand, the content of long-term institutional responses and counterterrorism strategies of Turkey and the UK and, on the other hand, the perceptions of victims to these institutional responses. This result offered us an analytical generalization in the framework of institutional responses and perceptions of victims, based on these cases only. As a result, this study emphasized the existence of an invisible but binding link between the content of institutional responses and perceptions of victims, despite it being difficult to clearly see the causes of this link.