For a long time, the Turkish government mismanaged the fast flow of refugees. Instead of giving/ assigning them a formal regulative framework, it relied on a vague “ummah” framework and in the meantime, it used them as a means of threat against the EU. Now that AKP realized that refugees were one of the reasons for their fall at the local elections, it is giving in to ultranationalist hysteria. Interestingly enough, opposition parties and some seemingly critical journalists are playing a vital role in creating a hysterical environment. AKP people are mostly happy with that, being silent in a literally racist assault against the refugees. As I noted several times, I do not ignore the refugee problem, I underline the way it is framed at the moment.
Check out İsmail Saymaz. A popular critical journalist who seems to be a dedicated Kemalist.
I am sure he is well intentioned but his framing is quite similar to anti-immigrant right’s views in Europe:
“Official unemployment reached five million, and the number of unemployed university graduates has exceeded half a million. The minimum wage is below the hunger limit. Rent takes half the salary. Instead of trying to understand this anger with the Syrians, they [critics of anti-immigrant discourse] arrogantly accuse the people as racist and fascist”
As if the reason for these social problems is the Syrian refugees. Instead of accusing the government, he accuses the weakest link in the most populist possible.
Yesterday, a group of Islamists protested this anti-immigrant hysteria. Their ummah framing is itself misleading. However, the issue is that this protest was framed as a protest by Syrians themselves. The Russian Sputnik now actively operates to agitate and claimed it as a Syrian protest.
This poster was a fake one and was widely circulated by nationalists accounts. As if the Syrians in Turkey were defying Turkey. Another poster was re-framed to make it like anti-Turkish. Two fascists deputies from İyi Party were particularly functional in the circulation of fake news. Many dailies from the right to left were trapped in this frame and presented the protest as a provocation against Turks…
Syrian refugees in Beirut and Istanbul detained and deported
Discover more from Erkan's Field Diary
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.