Turkey issued a total media ban over Ankara bombings. Demotix/Sahan Nuhoglu. All rights resrved.The Ankara massacre that killed 102 people, many of whom are our friends, affected our lives as adversely as anything we have seen for a long time – but not exactly for everyone. Such slogans as “it’s time to re-unite,” or “we need unity and solidarity today” on the part of the AKP deputies and authorities (Justice and Development Party) no longer mean anything, even if we take them to be the mainly empty gestures that they are. They are unreal, because there is no unity in Turkey.
Many Turkish people not of the left and not of the Kurdish community have little regret about this event. There are even those who went so far as to say on Twitter that “102 people are fortunately pegged out.” A quick search on Twitter will unfortunately provide the seeker with too many examples. It seems that they gloat and rejoice over our dead bodies, as Ece Temelkuran has recently chronicled in the Guardian. This is not just confined to hateful speeches, but issues as well in cruel acts.
These are the same people who attacked the protesters against the Suruç massacre and desecrated the carnations left near the Ankara train station where the bombs exploded, by people who were expressing their grief. We’re familiar with this kind of activity. From the Gezi Park protests of 2013 up to this day, we have witnessed people with machetes and knives in their hands who attack protesters. Or, even earlier, suffice it to remember the bloody May Day of 1977, and the dark and cruel killings of the 1990’s. Far from being new, these acts unfortunately constitute a right-wing tradition.
