The refugee issue is a critical matter not only for Türkiye but the whole world and is becoming increasingly serious by the day. The number of people displaced in world history has exceeded 100 million, and this is also a statistical record.
Humanity’s take on dealing with this problem reveals their quality, however, one of the factors determining this quality is the distinction made between refugees. The kind reception displayed towards one wave of migration while radically opposing another showed clearly the difference in behavior in European countries towards the wave of migration from Syria and Ukraine.
While Europeans use as an excuse their national security, the economic situation, et cetera against Syrian migration, they almost rolled out the red carpet for the great number of refugees from Ukraine shortly spreading across their countries. It is because the refugees from Ukraine were white-skinned and blue-eyed.
Those who find this odd are free to do so. This is their test, and they are losing, or perhaps everybody is acting in accordance with the responsibility posed to them as a result of their own history, community, and cultural heritage.
But what about us? Though our ties, cultural and historical relations with those from Syria is closer and stronger than those between Ukrainians and Europeans, why is there no strong reaction against the ignorant hostility that certain racist groups among us are trying to break out?
Who does this hate speech protect against whom? From our history, our culture, ourselves? Is it not natural for those trying to protect us from ourselves to be at loggerheads with us?
When have we ever seen these militants against Türkiye’s real enemies? Why do we never see them against those pointing their weapons at Türkiye, waging war against Türkiye, trying to corner Türkiye on every front?
Despite this, yes, the real question is: Where do those who are currently fueling a despicable hate discourse, which is completely against our country’s cultural, historical, and moral values, find the audacity?
One would normally feel the need to repent over and over again even at the thought of such ideas, yet how do people remain so silent in the face of this crime?
It wouldn’t be a problem if racism remained a thought only, but turning this into action and aggression against other races is clearly deviation, a crime against humanity, and this crime against humanity is almost about to blow up the society's peace, and stability, identity, and personality.
One who displays cheap heroism against weak and defenseless people seeking shelter, heading to the Syrian border to lay mines, before anything, disgraces themselves, but the fact that they can display this disgrace so recklessly is shameful in the name of humanity.
Europe, meanwhile, is trying to integrate with Ukraine by claiming certain historical, cultural, and identity ties. It is paving the way to integration by removing all the boundaries and mines separating them.
Our so-called nationalists, racists who are shouting out against innocent and unarmed civilians, asylum seeker women, and children in the name of national defense, on the other hand, are running to Türkiye’s border with Syria to lay mines.
We have to accept that a political party running to a demonstration with mines in their hands is a very creative one– but creative in the respect that it acts as a political wing of another party, a terrorist organization.
WHAT DOES THE MINE SYMBOLIZE?
The mine is truly a symbol. It does not protect Türkiye from anything. On the contrary, it symbolizes the shackles put on Türkiye by the imperialist who invaded Türkiye after World War I.
The mines laid on the borders imposed on Türkiye by the victors of the war (whether it was considered defeated because it lost to Germany), were almost completely removed 12 years ago. The mines represented breaking the shackles Türkiye and the Islamic world had been carrying since the end of World War I, and thus, Türkiye would re-embrace its own historical, cultural and sentimental geography. The clearance of these mines was the symbol of a great Islamic world’s awakening and resurrection.
The consecutive coups in Syria and Arab Spring countries were the expressions of an imperialist resistance against Türkiye and the Islamic world’s efforts to clear these mines.
Now, would one who runs to lay these mines on the same border represent Türkiye or the militant agency role imperialists cast for Türkiye?
Will the mines laid prevent refugees’ entry to Türkiye or Türkiye’s embrace of its brethren, its sentimental geography?
The fascist mentality likening this loneliness, these shackles, these mines to Türkiye cannot be displaying fascism in the name of Turkism. Turks far from this mentality have not suffered from anything as much as they did from fascism.
This mentality is not unfamiliar to us. This is the same mentality that has been telling Türkiye to “stay put” for centuries.
The fact that they are able to do this with complete political forgery in the name of Turkism and protecting the country is, before anything, regrettable in the name of national security.
