On 15 th and 20 th of November 2003 there were bomb attacks in different parts of Istanbul, killing more than 100 and wounding approximately 250 people. Turkey did not confront with such an aggression since the last decade. Public opinion was in shock, even though the government had taken the necessary steps immediately in order to prevent any further events. The terror victims were on the agenda of the media in the first days of the events. Within a few weeks, not only the events, but also the terror victims were forgotten.

In these days, International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation (IBC) were in charge of finding an efficient way to assist terror victims. The prominent of IBC had consulted to their foreign partners in order to determine the best way of assisting to terror victims. The negotiations resulted with the provision of 15.000$ funds from American Jewish World Services (AJWS).
On the other hand, IBC gathered information about the conditions of terror victims. At that point the cooperation of Beyoglu Municipality was vital for IBC. Otherwise it would not be easy to get information about terror victims.

IBC Assistance to Terror Victims
The information provided by Beyoglu Municipality indicated that vast of the terror victims were the only bread winners of their families which meant that these families would be in great difficulties in the following period. Due to the strong communal ties, the needs of these families were covered by the communities that they are belong to. Yet it is worth noting that these efforts were not enough. Thus, the support of NGO's and other institutions were crucial.

IBC planned to distribute food stuffs to terror victims in order to alleviate their sufferings. The target of IBC was the most disadvantaged 150 families. The first distribution was held on 30 th and 31 st of January 2004 with the accompaniment of the authorized staff of Beyoglu Municipality . The second was held one month later, on 2 nd of March again with the accompaniment of Beyoglu Municipality . And the final distribution was held on 12 th of April.
Each package contained the following foodstuffs:

•  Sunflower oil

•  Rice

•  Haricot bean

•  Lentil

•  Chickpea

•  Sugar

•  Tea

•  Macaroni

•  Flour

•  Tomato paste

•  Pounded wheat

•  Soap

•  Detergent

The Impression of the Representative of IBC
In all these distributions Ibrahim Toraman, the Public Relations Coordinator of IBC, had witnessed to the social and psychological sufferings of those families as well as the poverty that they have confronted with. Toraman believes that, IBC assistance to terror victims did not only aim to cover the needs of the terror victims, but also underlined one of the weak points of the contemporary Turkish society which can be named as “lack of solidarity”. (It should also be noted that, the term solidarity is not used in terms of communal solidarity. Here, solidarity refers to cooperation among different social groups. That is to say the term is used in a much more broaden meaning.)
Solidarity should be regarded as an ongoing process within a society which has three main dimensions: Economic, psychological, and social. Hopefully IBC assistance to terror victims evaluated these three dimensions as a whole. The economic dimension covered the fundamental needs. Psychological dimension, on the other hand, emphasized the importance of “state of belonging”. And finally social dimension, aimed to strengthen one of the weak points – solidarity - of contemporary Turkish society.

Conclusion
To sum it up, international terrorism has been threatening innocent people not only in Turkey , but also in different parts of the world. What people witnessed on 15 th and 20 th on November 2004 in Istanbul , was repeated in Spain a few months later. In both cases the result was dreadful. Many people died, and hundreds of them wounded. The supporters of human rights and international laws have to act accordingly. The cooperation of American Jewish World Services, International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation and Beyoglu Municipality should be regarded as a response to terrorism. For the following period, it seems that such efforts will be intensified between different organizations and NGO's.