When Paris or Brussels or London or Boston is attacked, there is outrage. The world comes together. The flag of the country attacked is flown high, prominent buildings are decked out in the colors of the grieving nation to show solidarity. Je suis whatever is hashtagged all over the place. But when Ankara or Istanbul or Suruç are bombed the response is a shaking of the head, a gentle tsk tsk.
After the Brussels bombing there was a media blackout. Of course, this is the only sensible thing to do. Protect the people. Clamp down on the borders. Increase security. Yet, when this happens in Turkey, it is perceived as repression, as the act of a dictator, a despot.
Media coverage of the Paris attacks and media coverage of the almost simultaneous bombing in Beirut were in no way comparable. Beirut, in which 43 people died and approximately 200 were injured, was, if it is possible to say such a thing about a terrorist attack, less horrific than the Paris attacks; indeed, it appeared as a footnote in the media. Paris was covered with 24-hour live streaming for days, leading these terrible attacks in the city to top the media's agenda.
This dichotomy of the importance given to events in European cities over events in Middle Eastern cities looms large in mainstream and non-mainstream media. It does not affect only how the West perceives and reacts to Turkey. It also affects the Turkish mentality. The Turkish people are uniting but fall shy of showing the great unity that is shown in the West after bomb attacks. This is because media reporting drives the polarization that has always existed in the Republic of Turkey.This bias, which is not unique, has been justified in a number of ways. The fact that in Lebanon in 2014 alone there were at least 200 terrorist attacks, taking 114 lives, means that the bombing at the time of the Paris attacks did not seem so newsworthy. The old adage "When a dog bites a man, that is not news because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news" applies here. That is, bombings in the Middle East are not seen as newsworthy. But there is more to this phenomenon than this. It is not just a case of newsworthiness. This is nothing more nor less than Islamophobia, or downright racism on a national level.
When Paris or Brussels or London or Boston is attacked, there is outrage. The world comes together. The flag of the country attacked is flown high, prominent buildings are decked out in the colors of the grieving nation to show solidarity. Je suis whatever is hashtagged all over the place. But when Ankara or Istanbul or Suruç are bombed the response is a shaking of the head, a gentle tsk tsk. There goes Turkey, sliding into chaos again. But didn't we know it was going to happen? Wasn't the writing on the wall? Don't you know that there is a crackdown on journalism there? That there are curfews in the southeast? That academics are being persecuted?
The fact that the crackdown on journalism is almost entirely related to terrorist activities, the fact that the curfews have been imposed to eliminate a terrorist organization that bombs major Turkish cities and the fact that the problems with the academics are nothing more or less due to these so-called academics supporting - overtly supporting - terrorism are simply overlooked. When President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stands up and utters the truism "If you are not against terror, you are supporting terror," it is purposefully misquoted in both Turkish and Western newspapers as: "Those who are not with us are supporting terror" - in this case by Taha Akyol writing for Hürriyet Daily News. Anyone who speaks up for the rights of terrorists is supporting terrorism, and no amount of whitewashing with an academic coat of paint can cover up this ugly fact.Rather, these issues are wrapped up in shiny intellectual, left-wing or liberal ideals and presented to the reader; the truth that the government is doing its utmost to stop terrorism and terrorist attacks in the country is covered over, and the opinion that such attacks, such destruction, such inhumanity can only be expected from this country is brought to the fore. The twisted, perverted theory that is prevalent in Western media is that Turkey is being bombed, attacked and targeted because of its government. Yet the French or Belgian governments are not accused of oppression, repression or even incompetency. The fact that Turkey caught the two bombers of Brussels and handed them over to the Belgian authorities, who set them free, is not laid at the feet of the government. The fact that the Belgian authorities arrested one of the Paris terrorists with great fanfare, displaying the event for all to see only days before a new attack by DAESH was launched is not seen as a miscalculation or a misstep. No, indeed, the world stands with Belgium. And this is only right. The world should stand with Belgium.
Yet the world does not stand with Turkey, Lebanon, Kenya or any other Muslim-majority country. The reason for this is as simple as it is ugly.
It is as simple as the Black Lives Matter movement. The fact that we have to say black lives matter resonates. Of course, black lives matter, it should not even be a question. Yet, the Black Lives Matter movement came about because there are a large number of black individuals in prison in the United States as well as elsewhere, and a large number have been killed or abused when being arrested. Even worse, when a black person is treated unjustly or loses their lives due to racist reactions on the part of the police, there is an unspoken racist reaction from the public: "Well, they probably did something that forced the police to shoot them." That is, they asked for it. This social racism is so deeply rooted that it took outrage and protests for people to realize that indeed, black lives do matter. Even when there is video footage of a person being shot as they are walking away from the police, unarmed, the reaction is not always outrage. Although the victim is shot in the back, the police still claim self-defense, and can often get away with such ridiculous claims simply because the victim is black.
Thus, black lives matter. Black Lives Matter emerged as a response to social racism. But Muslim lives matter. Muslim-majority governments matter. The attitude that countries like Turkey or Lebanon have to learn to live with terrorism, that they have helped cause terrorism, is a product of civilizational racism. Muslims do not deserve to be bombed, Muslim-majority governments do not deserve to be driven into chaos by internal and external forces or brought down.
Perhaps dear reader this seems rather dramatic to you. Who is talking about bringing down the government? Well, there is talk. As recently as last Monday, two days after the bombing on İstiklal Avenue, Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official who specializes in the Middle East who is allegedly an "expert," wrote the following chilling title: "Could there be a coup in Turkey?"
Not much needs to be quoted from the article here - it can be found on the website of the conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute. But here are a few choice lines to whet the appetite. I will skip the blatantly ridiculous claims like: "[Erdoğan is] building palaces at the rate of a mad sultan or aspiring caliph." One palace has been built for the president - that is, not for Erdoğan, but for the president. It is a state-owned building and functions as the offices of the president, no different from the White House. It is bigger, perhaps showier. But this is Turkey, and showy goes here. It is the norm. The building of one palace in Ankara is not the work of a mad sultan or an aspiring caliph. To state this is simply libelous."In recent weeks, [Erdoğan] has once again threatened to dissolve the Constitutional Court." No, Erdoğan said he did not agree with the ruling of the Constitutional Court, which freed two journalists accused of espionage. As discussed in this column before, this decision was made in contravention of normal jurisprudential procedure. That is, Erdoğan had the right to disagree with the court; indeed, I too have the right to disagree with the court. Never was there mention of dissolving the Constitutional Court nor is there any mention of overturning the ruling.
After the Brussels bombing there was a media blackout. Of course, this is the only sensible thing to do. Protect the people. Clamp down on the borders. Increase security. Yet, when this happens in Turkey, it is perceived as repression, as the act of a dictator, a despot.