Mahmut Bozarslan/AP/Press Association. All rights reserved.I am sitting in a café, and for the first time in my experience here, I am uneasy. Almost four weeks ago, there was a bombing in Ankara. Two weeks ago, another one in Taksim, the heart of Istanbul’s European side.
By now both of these events are old news for everyone outside of Turkey – something faintly recalled as a blip on your newsfeed. But here, it is difficult to put into words the pain that this country has endured throughout the past few months. And, as social media has now become the platform by which online activists can affirm whether communities deserve sympathy and righteous outrage or not, there has been a justified anger here at the total absence of international sympathy for our pain.
One particular post that garnered a great deal of attention and support was written by a British expat living in Turkey. He described the outrage he felt at the seemingly total apathy expressed by the international community. In his post, he eloquently outlined the hypocrisy of those who “were” Charlie Hebdo, and who changed their profile pictures to the French flag when Paris was hit with simultaneous, horrific attacks earlier this year, yet were nowhere to be seen when we needed support. He perfectly exemplified the outrage, frustration, and humiliation experienced here in reaction to this internet version of a callous shrug. And in his statement, he supposed that perhaps the reason for the lack of western empathy in particular was because the west sees Turkey as being part of the Middle East, a categorisation he is quick to dismiss. We are not the Middle East, we are Europe, and therefore it is an outrage that we are being treated as though violence is normal or permissible here.
