The country is Muslim and also a secular democracy, so al-Qaeda hates it.

A local radical Islamic group has claimed responsibility for the latest terrorist outrage in Istanbul, in which suicide bombings of the British consulate and a London-based bank killed at least 27 people and wounded more than 400. The attacks, like last weekend's suicide bombings of two syn_agogues in the city, which killed 23 people, bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda and its local affiliates. This was not only because of the bombers' belief that they would find martyrdom in dying while shedding the blood of others, nor even because the choice of targets reflected alignments in the Bush Administration's war against terr_or, and in the I_sraeli-Palestinian conflict - Britain and Turkey are US allies, and Turkey is Israel's sole ally in the Islamic world. It was also because the Istanbul bombings, like the al-Qaeda attacks earlier this month in the Saud_i capital, Riyadh, are not just part of a war being waged against the West.

Al-Qaeda's founder, Osama bin Laden, has presented himself as the leader of a movement aimed at restoring st_ict Islamic practice, and, as part of that goal, overthrowing regimes deemed to have deviated from it or, worst of all, to have c_ompromised with the secular West. That makes the corrupt House of Saud an obvious t_rget; but for al-Qaeda, Turkey is a far greater one.

Bin Laden has made several speeches tracing what he believes to be the pernicious inroads of Western thought to the foundation of the modern Turkish republic in the aftermath of the First World War. Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the state, pursued a program of aggressive secularisation, and despite continuing tensions between_ mo_dernisers and Islamists, Turkey has remained faithful to his ideals. In the past 80 years it has had recurrent periods of military dictatorship, but after each period the army has always restored civilian rule and the republican institutions Ataturk devised. That history makes Turkey stand out in the Middle East, where only Israel has a record of continuous democracy.

For those who wonder w_h_ether predominantly Muslim societies can accommodate a liberal democratic ethos, Turkey is the available example. The sort of state the U_S _Administration hopes to build in Iraq already exists in Turkey, and has put down strong roots.

All of this means that Turkey, and any Islamic state that follows its example, is likely to be crucial in determining the course of the war against terror. Al-Qa_eda and similar movements will not restrict their list of targets to such countries, but if they are ultimately to be overcome it will be because other Muslims are not lured by the message they _pr_each.

There i_s l_ittle Western nations can do directly to help Turkey, other than through the police co-operation and intelligence exchanges that already take place. But the Turkish Government should be reassured that it will not be abandoned if there are further terrorist atrocities: to isolate Turkey would be to do al-Qaeda's work.