One of the fundamental parameters of civilization is that humans treat other humans who are not from their own community just as they treat their own kind. Many of the civilization theory makers, especially liberal philosophers, stress this. To treat people who have common traits with us in terms of religion, language, culture, ethnicity, not to violate their rights, nor discriminate them in the practice of the law, and to help them with their troubles and support them is not something exceptional. In fact, it is an easy thing to do. However, what matters is that whether we treat people, who differ from us in terms of religion, language, culture or ethnicity, in the same way or not. This is the criterion of being a civil and good person. It is also the criterion for the persecution and tragedies to decrease.
Liberal theory makers use a method, which is called "methodological individualism", in explaining societies. The reason behind this is to explain the human diversity and protect it, but this can only be done through an individual approach. No matter on what it is grounded (be it language, religion, ethnicity etc.), to speak of collective identities inevitably leads to the otherization of the different ones.
A common human rights theory and a political structure, which observes human rights, can only rise on the abstract individual characterization. Human rights do not belong to Muslims or Christians or atheists, but to the abstract human. No one can have a right or be deprived of these rights simply because of having a specific sociological character.
This does not mean to reject that humans belong to a certain language, religion, culture. These belongings are already data and cannot be exterminated by someone"s will. However, there are certain differences in these belongings that may cause some others in the group to become alienated. In other words, when collectivity is taken for granted, it is inevitable that collectivity goes through a decomposition because humans cannot be the exact same of others. The human world lays out an enormously wide landscape of colors of itself and civil people observe and respect the rights and laws of other people who are not like themselves.
This is a parameter of civilization for countries. Civil countries, irrelevant to their location in the world, show reaction in case the people go through persecution or oppression. They help the victims to the best of their capacity. In this framework, refugees are the ones that must be most sensitively taken care of. Refugees are perhaps the biggest victims, the most oppressed and the most fragile people of the planet.
We can be sure of this by checking it in our souls that no one would easily want to desert their own location of birth, place of upbringing, where their roots were grounded.
A vast majority of the people wish to die in the geographical area where they have been saving their memories and were born and raised. When they leave their homeland, they do it by will. Their expulsion from their own lands by force and dismissal is similar to being uprooted like a tree out of the ground. This is a human crime. People may become obliged to leave their homelands if they consider their life in danger. In recent times, unfortunately we have been witnessing tragic examples of this.
Turkey has witnessed and become a stage for intensive inflows of refugees for the last 3 or 4 years. Hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter in our country due to the civil war in Iraq. The government did the right thing by opening its arms to these people. It prepared refugee camps for them. It took cautions in order to provide the needs of refugees. The inflow is still active from Syria.
From time to time, both the leftist and rightist racists cuss their hate against the Arab and Muslim background of refugees, because they beg on the streets or, according to their own claims, because of their involvement with crimes. They are denouncing and condemning the the government, because it let in the refugees. This is inappropriate behavior. In terms of international law and human ethics, it is impossible for Turkey not to open its borders to those who seek refuge.
Preventing intensive immigration does not solve the immigration problem,but fighting against the causes of the problems is the key. Instead of talking against the refugees or leading a campaign against them, NGOs should support this struggle.
Now Turkey is facing the possibility of a new refugee wave. This time, thousands of Yazidis living in Iraq, that are trying to avoid the ISIL terror, might flee to Turkey. Some of them already arrived. If this happens, Turkey should open its borders to Yazidis (Ezidis) coming from Iraq just as it helped Muslims coming from Iraq and should help them to the best of its capacity.
The fact that the Yazidis belong to a different religion should not create any difference in view of our moral and human duty. This will only reinforce Turkey and ennoble it.
