WHY DO TURKS SEE DIVERSITY AS A THREAT?

Today’s Zaman
04 October 2009, Sunday

A survey of the public whose results were published last week has
revealed that 57 percent of Turkish people do not want to have an
atheist neighbor.

A survey of the public whose results were published last week has
revealed that 57 percent of Turkish people do not want to have an
atheist neighbor.

"I would not want a non-Muslim or an atheist neighbor mainly because
I would really fear that they might attempt to impose their beliefs
and ideas on my children who would somehow engage in an interaction
with them," says Z.M., 25, an employee at a private bank in Ä°stanbul
who joins the majority of the Turkish nation that say they would not
want a neighbor from a different ethnic or religious background.

Published by the Radikal daily last week, the results of a European
Union-sponsored public survey on xenophobia and racism, conducted
by the Frekans research company, have revealed that that 57 percent
of Turks do not want to have an atheist for a neighbor; 42 percent
don’t want to have a Turkish-Jewish neighbor; and 35 percent would
prefer not to have a Christian neighbor.

Intense propaganda carried out by ultranationalist circles in Turkey
and conspiracy theories, which put the blame on foreign sources for
each and every shadowy and illegitimate incident, have turned Turkey
into a closed society, said Yasin Aktay, a sociology professor at
Selcuk University in Konya and a columnist for the Yeni Å~^afak daily.

He said the belief that the cause of every evil is others [namely
foreigners] and their perception as an enemy is so strong in Turkey
that people look for others when trying to find the guilty party in
an incident, eventually leading the nation to fail to be self-critical
and see its own shortcomings.

Nevertheless, Aktay noted that while commenting on the survey results,
one should not forget a sociological reality in Turkey, which is the
fact that Turkish people see their neighbors as someone from the
family. "They have c eighbors in other parts of the world." Aktay
told Sunday’s Zaman.

Nilufer Narlı, a sociology professor at Ä°stanbul’s BahceÅ~_ehir
University, agrees that propaganda plays a crucial role in the
formation of hostile feelings toward people from different ethnic
and religious backgrounds in society. In Narlı’s view, people first
"depersonalize" and then "dehumanize" those who are different in
their eyes and perceive them as enemies.

In her view, it is not possible to quickly change the perception of
people toward those with different religious and ethnic backgrounds,
but she says some measures could be taken to reshape these perceptions
in the next generations.

"During human rights courses in schools, students should be taught
that discrimination is a big offense. Parents should use careful
language when talking about ‘other’ people in the family because the
language they use shapes the perceptions of their children about those
people. The media also have a responsibility as it also needs to pay
attention to not using discriminatory language while covering news
about these people. Finally, although the Turkish Constitution says
everyone is equal before the law, more specific laws should be enacted
against the rhetoric of discrimination and hate," suggested Narlı.

Commenting on the survey results in his Friday column, Sabah’s Hasan
Bulent Kahraman says one can easily conclude that Turks are xenophobic
and that this would be a correct interpretation. "One out of every
two people in this society, which has its roots in the Ottoman Empire,
famous for its tolerance of different ethnic and religious communities,
does not want to have a Jewish neighbor."

Financial problems and lack of education, according to Kahraman, have
led fascism to sprout its seeds in Turkey. "France always confronts its
fascist history. Turkey is also covering significant distance to this
end. This is a tough road. Suppression, silence, forgetting and hiding
is a part of this process, but it is not possible to become ocratic
and civilized country without undergoing this process, particularly at
a time when multiculturalism and pluralism precisely mean democracy,"
contends Kahraman.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınc, who found the survey results
startling, said last week there was the need to exert great efforts to
prevent intolerance in society. "One of the most important features of
the civilizations established in these territories is their tolerance,
their respect for others," he said.

Recalling a picture at the entrance of the municipality building
in Manisa’s Kırkagac district, he said the picture which shows
the members of the municipal council in 1916 reveals that there were
Armenian, Greek and Jewish members of the municipal council. "We worked
together with those people. The Armenians, who are identified as the
‘loyal nation,’ served as ministers in this country. We all know this,"
he remarked.