TURKEY URGENTLY NEEDS PEACE JOURNALISM!
Erol Onderoglu

BIA
ori/english/104845/turkey-urgently-needs-peace-jou rnalism
Feb 13 2008
Turkey

A reaction in the Turkish press to the fire in Ludwigshafen which
killed nine Turks shows how great the need for more balanced reporting
is. A newspaper accusing Germany of covering up a neo-Nazi attack is
perpetrating racism itself.

Yesterday’s headline in a Turkish tabloid was a worrying example of
the interpretation of current affairs in a manner which reinforces a
sense of victimhood as well as nationalist aggression in Turkey. The
article in question was a reaction to the fire in Ludwigshafen,
Germany, which had killed nine Turks, five of them children. The
cause of the fire is as yet unknown.

German criticism of Turkish prejudice The German press has been
commenting on Turkish reactions to the fire, saying "the Turkish
media is prejudiced and Erdogan has confused mourning with elections,"
referring to the wide-spread belief in Turkey that the fire in Germany
was neo-Nazi arson, and also referring to Prime Minister Erdogan’s
speech in Cologne, in which he opposed assimilation.

The Westdeutsche Zeitung in Germany had criticised a "prejudiced
Turkish press" and the fact that Erdogan seemed to use the occasion
of the funeral for too much speechifying. The Flensburger Tagesblatt
had also written about Erdogan’s mistiming, confusing mourning and
election campaigning.

Partly in reaction to this, the tabloid newspaper Gunes (Sun) made
disturbing comments about the fire in Germany this month which killed
nine Turks and the murder of journalist Hrant Dink in Turkey last
year on its front page yesterday (12 February).

Inciting to racism Its headline read, "9 Turks are not considered worth
1 Hrant", followed by the following text: "When Hrant Dink became the
victim of a heinous assassination, Turkey stood up in protest. But
for the 9 Turkish victims of Nazis, no one is raising their voice."

It is not difficult to translate the headline into what the editors of
the newspaper really think, i.e. "9 Turks were not considered worth
1 Armenian." It is ironic that the newspaper complains about lack of
empathy for "Nazi victims", although arson has not been proven and
investigations into the cause of the fire are continuing, while at
the same time encouraging another kind of racism.

It is precisely this kind of racism which has led to the murders
of priest Andrea Santoro, journalist Hrant Dink and three Christian
publishers in Malatya.

Accusing Germany and Turkey of hypocrisy Referring to the crowds in
front of the court building at the third hearing of the Dink murder
case on 11 February as well as the crowds at his funeral last year,
the Gunes said: "At least as heinous an attack was experienced in
Germany. Nine Turks died when their house was burnt down. Their names
were Ilyas…Belma…Karanfil….When they were buried in Gaziantep
yesterday, there were no tens of thousands of people who ‘felt the
pain in their heart.’

The newspaper was also incensed at the fact that Germans did not
march saying "We are all Turkish," again a reference to the funeral
procession of Hrant Dink, where people had carried banners of empathy,
saying "We are all Hrant, we are all Armenian." Gunes also accuses
the German media of a cover-up.

The newspaper is thus perpetrating the common Turkish nationalist
discourse of looking for enemies without and within.

A very different interpretation…

In a very different vein was the article by Mehmet Yilmaz in the
Hurriyet newspaper yesterday (12 February). He pointed out that
because of the possibility of a racist attack, there were German
representatives at the funeral in Gaziantep. He added:

"Priest Santoro was killed in Trabzon as the result of a
religious-racist attack. No high-level state official participated
in his funeral."

"Hrant Dink was killed in a religious-racist attack. The Prime Minister
visited the Dink family in their home to express his condolences
after the funeral. You imagine why he could not attend the funeral
and why he felt he had to express his condolences behind closed doors."

"The Turkish and German Christians working in a bookshop which
published bibles in Malatya were slain in a religious-racist attack,
three people died. There were no state officials at the funerals."

Media reinforcing racism and xenophobia A regional newspaper in
Gaziantep, where all the nine fire victims were from, the Hakimiyet
newspaper, reported on the funeral. It quoted the German ambassador
Eckart Cuntz in Ankara, who attended the funeral, as saying: "The
people who lost their lives where the children of both the cities of
Gaziantep and Ludwigshafen."

The mayor of Greater Gaziantep, Asim Guzelbey, was cited in the same
article: "On my visit to Germany immediately after the fire, I saw
that German society was at least as affected as we were by the event.

I saw that everything is being done to find the cause of the event. I
want this to be known."

However, as if ignoring these mutual expressions of respect and
goodwill, the newspaper then chose to head the article thus: "From
the German Hell to God’s Heaven"…

Regional and national newspapers have not grasped the concept of
peace journalism, which is vital in the struggle against racism and
xenophobia. It is high time they did, however; otherwise how can we
understand who is sowing the seeds of discord? (EO/TK/AG)