What is the logic of boycotting Turkish goods?

In recent days a campaign calling for a boycott of Turkish products has been running on Arab social media. It appears that the campaign is centered in Saudi Arabia (SA) and is being run by media trolls linked to the administrations of the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, but its justification is put forward as a reaction to Turkey's hostile stance toward SA, and it is presented as a "boycott of Turkish-made products by the Arab people and SA citizens."

First of all, let us state that the Arab peoples or SA citizens have nothing to do with this campaign. On the contrary, from the moment the first messages of such a campaign began to appear, a much stronger counter-campaign titled "Let us buy Turkish-made products" was also launched by the Arab peoples.

However, there appear to be strong signs that the SA administration is spearheading this campaign. Not only are many officials joining this campaign in person through social media alone and inviting a boycott of Turkish products, but there are reports that SA security units, through the Chamber of Commerce, summoned all businessmen who do business with Turkey and pressured them with threats to stop their dealings with Turkey.

The vast majority of the SA citizens who attended these meetings, in which pressure was also applied on those who own real estate in Turkey to dispose of it, are having difficulty making sense of the situation.

It is understood that SA regards Turkey as responsible for the situation it has fallen into, especially because of the Khashoggi murder, and has come to the point of harboring a grudge against Turkey. Yet in the Khashoggi matter Turkey has done nothing but demand justice from SA.

It surely does not think it can make Turkey back down with these sanctions. In fact, in the days when all dimensions of the murder began to emerge, Turkey, on purely ethical grounds, did not open any door to negotiation offers made to it that began by citing the commercial exchange between them. There was an utterly unjust and cruel murder, and, regardless of who committed it, Turkey had been content not to block the way to the establishment of justice. Since it cannot be thought that the doors of offers left unopened that day can be opened today through boycott threats, it is clear that we are facing a boycott aimed at revenge or punishment.

SA, which lost the test of justice in the Khashoggi matter, now thinking that it can punish those who demand justice with an economic boycott reveals another state of ignorance. That is the ignorance of supposing that sustenance belongs to them.

This attitude, this arrogance, stems from the thought that the most important trump card at hand is the economy, and from thinking that they can provide sustenance to whomever they wish and withhold the sustenance of whomever they wish.

In fact, did the arrogance that drove them to commit that murder in Istanbul so crudely not also come from that ignorance? What drove them to commit that murder so comfortably, even knowing that someone was waiting outside for Khashoggi, was ultimately the thought that even if the incident came out, its disclosure could be prevented by the power of money. For them money settles everything, and money is theirs. Because they possess money, no one wants to fall out with them over someone who fell victim to murder.

Evidently they have so far settled such illegal affairs in many countries in this way without their coming to light. Since even if it came to light nobody would be willing to risk losing the material power they hold, or in order to keep profiting from it, a cover-up has been considered guaranteed.

That comfort, that crudeness, that insolence stems entirely from this.

They suppose that sustenance belongs to them. Yet it is God who gives that sustenance even to them. They have become so heedless of the fact that the One who gave them this sustenance today will take it from them whenever He wishes.

The Arab peoples, however, no matter how much their own rulers call for a boycott against Turkish-made products, do not hold back from buying them. They run counter-campaigns and rush to buy these goods. That is why they try to run the campaign with the power of the state, and even there they do not shy away from lying.

They run their own campaigns under the headlines "boycott by the Arab peoples." The truth of the matter is that Turkish goods have proven their quality and beauty in the eyes of the Arab peoples.

More importantly, because Turkey, with its policies in recent years, with its policies in Palestine, Syria, Somalia, Qatar, Libya and all the lands of the oppressed, has established its throne in the hearts of the Arab peoples, a special demand for its products has formed.

The steps some rulers take against this affection serve no purpose other than to humiliate themselves even further in the eyes of their own peoples.