Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov's daughter Liza Peskova has voiced her criticism against the international community for ignoring the recent terror attacks in Ankara and Istanbul while showing solidarity with the terror victims in Europe.
Peskova shared an Instagram picture with a caption reading "Why the Internet is not covered with Turkish flags? Is the death of people returning home on a Sunday evening in Ankara, is less important than the death of people in Paris? Do we divide terror attacks as important and less important?"
"I was born in Turkey, lived and studied in Russia and France, among my friends there are Chechens, Kurds, Turks, Europeans, Arabs ... I take the terror attacks in Russia, France and Turkey as personal grief, because these three countries are particularly close to me. But I am also deeply sorry for people around the world, who are subjected to this horror," Peskova said.
The Kremlin spokesperson's daughter further said that the only way to defeat terrorism is to stop dividing these attacks into major and minor and show solidarity after each terrorist crime. She ended her message with a Turkish message, reading "Türkiye, ailem ve ben sizinle beraber! üzgünüz!" which is translated as "Turkey, my family and I are with you! We are sorry!
A series of explosions, claimed by Daesh terror organization, hit Brussels's airport and subway on March 22, leaving 31 people dead and 136 others injured.
The attack, condemned by world leaders immediately, was also largely covered by the social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook. In addition, many large cities around the world, from North America to the Middle Eastern countries, showed their sympathy and solidarity by projected Belgian flag on national monuments and symbolic structures.
Such stance is a sign of solidarity and anger against all kinds of terror attacks targeting innocent civilian lives, which should be expected from the international community.
However, the attention paid, sympathy shown, and solidarity put forward against the recent attacks in Ankara and Istanbul fell way behind last year's attacks in Paris and March 22 attacks in Brussels.
On March 13, a hardliner affiliate group of PKK terrorist organization committed a suicide car bombing in capital Ankara which killed 35 civilians.
A week after the Ankara attack, on March 19, a suicide bomber, linked with Daesh terror group killed five people and injured 36 in Istiklal Street, one of Istanbul's major shopping and tourist areas.
Many social media users voiced their concerns saying, "You were Paris, You are Brussels, but you were not Ankara."
Twitter user Bison C. Messink (@bisonmessink) wrote: "It's fine to point out the differing response and outcry following attacks in Paris vs Brussels vs Ankara vs Kabul. Says something about us."
Another Twitter user Yasin Tuncer (@yasin__tuncer) wrote: "Did you see any Turkish flag for Ankara and Istanbul victims in Eiffel Tower, and Lyon's Bellcour square last week?"
Humera Shamsuddin (@humsiee) wrote: "Its easy to look at terror attacks in Paris&Brussels & feel pain/sadness for the victims, but why is it not the same for Ankara or Nigeria?!"
Two articles published in Britain's the Independent newspaper by Yasmin Ahmed (Downing Street raises the Belgian flag and we tweet for Brussels - but where was this sympathy after Ankara?) and Samuel Osborne (Brussels bombings: Social media reaction to attacks criticised as disproportionate compared to Ankara) also criticized the biased stance.
"Our indifference and our casual suspicion of Islam is fueling terrorist organizations like ISIS [Daesh]," Yasmin Ahmed wrote.
