Oral Çalışlar
The Turkish original of this article was published as
Batıyla öfke nöbeti on 2nd August 2016.
The Western media have become truly infuriating. Publishing or broadcasting outlets said to be “wholly reliable” keep distorting facts and events. Commentaries are coming to be chock full of insulting or mocking pejoratives. This is an editorial line that runs parallel to the public mood in the West as well as politicians’ reactions to Turkey. In fact, ordinary Europeans’ social media comments are even more negative than the mainstream Western media. Thinhs have got to the point where we can speak of a “pro-coup” atmosphere dominating Western skies.
Öyle bir Türkiye imgesi gelişti ki, “darbe iyidir” psikolojisi zemin kazandı.
Initially they were positive
At an early stage the West thought that the AKP government provided a positive example of “democratic Islam,” and extended its support. Gradually, however, the magic wore out, and the view that Erdogan was not the politician they had hoped for and expected became widespread. The West’s traditional Islamophobia has come out of hiding. A younger Western generation in the West is much more hard-lining on secularism and hence nurtures a different concept of democracy. Over the last decade, our view of the West as well as their view of us has changed a lot in many ways. Tensions escalating over Gaza evolved into outright polarization with the Mavi Marmara massacre. The 17-25 December 2013 “corruption” operations carried domestic tensions, too, to a higher level. Through a multi-faceted propaganda campaign also fed by the domestic opposition, Erdogan was presented to the Western public in a partly Putinesque, partly radical Islamist context. The resulting image of Turkey was so bad that it laid the ground for preferring a coup as “better” than democracy.
Now what?
Justified as we are in being furious at the West, we also have to be realistic. At the end of the day, Turkey is still part of the “Western alliance.” Half of our foreign trade is with Europe. In spite of all its double standards, Europe is deeply attached to its “democratic criteria” that have evolved and accumulated over many centuries. Those criteria are enduring guidelines for improving and developing our own democracy. It is also the case that in our anger, we are capable of going overboard to the point where we begin to fantasize about the West (and especially Great Britain and the US) as feeling nothing but hostility to Turkey… International relations are based on mutual interest. Turkey is not a country that can be easily discarded. While inviting them to common sense, we ourselves must also be calm, patient and self-confident, and not waste our energy in fighting.
NOTE: I am hoping and wishing for Hilmi Yavuz, Şahin Alpay, Nazlı Ilıcak, Nuriye Akman and Ali Bulaç to regain their freedom as soon as possible.
………
Hilmi Yavuz, Şahin Alpay, Nazlı Ilıcak, Nuriye Akman ve Ali Bulaç’ın bir an önce özgürlüklerine kavuşmasını diliyorum