The cost of xenophobia to Turkey

The racism and xenophobia that have run completely out of control lately, especially on social media, are showing their expected and intended effect. The intended effect is not only to create a feeling of hatred toward Arabs among Turks; the more immediate aim is for Arab tourism and capital investment to move away from Türkiye.

Tourism is one of Türkiye's most important sources of income and export items. Türkiye's industry has only recently developed to the point of forming an important source of exports, so it has gained a significant advantage in industrial products and processed, high-quality agricultural products. To be fair, tourism too is an important export item and has been of strategic importance to Türkiye since the eighties.

Bureaucratic obstacles to the development of this sector are being removed with this strategic approach, and investments are being encouraged. The development of this sector also proceeds alongside a struggle to grab a place in the global market. This struggle can often be very fierce, and competition may not remain limited to countries marketing themselves well. Sabotage, forest fires, counter-propaganda, terror operations can also find a place as part of competition in this field.

Let us say this much: for years in Türkiye the terrorist organization PKK and later DAESH, with the terror attacks they carried out, worked as agents of this cutthroat competition rather than as carriers of their own ideological messages. Every terror attack in the middle of Istanbul spread the image of Türkiye as an unsafe country and wrecked the image of Türkiye that the Ministry of Tourism was trying to put forward to the contrary. Tourism responds very quickly to terror attacks, and because of the perception of insecurity created by that attack, tourism takes a great blow. Those who directed these terror acts did so either to steer tourists toward another tourist destination or, with no such aim of steering at all, simply to harm the Turkish economy. In every case, hostility toward Türkiye was being displayed.

Thank God, thanks to the great success achieved in recent years in the fight against terrorism, Türkiye has come a very solid way toward being a safe and peaceful country. Thanks to this, tourism too has made very great progress. Especially in the face of the economic difficulties we are going through, everyone appreciates that one of the most trusted sources of income is tourism revenue. In his first days after taking over the management of the economy, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek had stressed that tourism must certainly develop further.

But those who today could not undermine tourism with terror have now found another path of terror by stoking xenophobia. Racist discourse, acts and social media posts directed especially at Arabs unfortunately do not stay inside the country; with today's technological means they are instantly reflected in the Arab world. As the rumor that there is an anti-Arab attitude in Türkiye spreads, the rising reservation cancellations have begun to be strongly felt this summer.

What has been cancelled is not only tourist trips; many capital investments too have changed course because of the rabid racists in Türkiye. Those inside the sector see this more and more. For those outside the sector, let us say that the material equivalent of the price paid just this summer because of these racist discourses has reached at least 5 billion dollars.

Now tell me, what is the difference in intent and purpose between these racist discourses and acts, which have cost Türkiye 5 billion dollars in a few months, and the terror acts of the PKK or DAESH?

Arab tourists, as everyone knows, spend at least 10 times as much as a Russian or European tourist. Moreover, the Arab tourist does not come for a temporary stay; he buys a house, invests, sets up a business, thus creating an unparalleled source of income that continually pours money into Türkiye. Such a tourist has a quality that whets the appetite of all countries. That is why everyone tries to attract this kind of tourist to themselves and, if necessary, to dissuade him from going elsewhere, especially to their rivals.

Zahide Tuba Kor, on her blog Dış Politika ve Ortadoğu Günlüğü, based on serial interviews she conducted with Syrian businessmen, reveals the gravity of the situation as to what xenophobia, especially anti-Arab discourse, costs:

"With crimes committed against Syrians being published in exaggerated form in the Arab media, Türkiye has recently been gradually perceived in Arab countries as a racist state. This is a very dangerous situation. A counter-racism is developing against the racism growing in Türkiye. You are not aware of how much damage your country is suffering because Ümit Özdağ and his gang spread the poison of racism."

"Because of racism, foreigners are ending their investments in Türkiye. Most Arab merchants who had set up companies in Türkiye stopped coming to Türkiye this summer and said, 'Close the company and your accounts. We do not want to come to Türkiye and do business again.' Every time they came to Türkiye they spent at least 10,000 dollars a month and left money in this country."

Just looking at this picture is enough to understand whom those who irresponsibly stoke xenophobia and anti-Arab hostility serve, and that they are collaborators working to harm Türkiye and the Turkish nation more insidiously than the PKK.

Traitors do not become Turks by putting on a Turkish guise. Shouting "Turkishness" and uttering discourses that are unworthy of the glory of Turkishness, that nurture hostility toward foreigners or make foreigners enemies of Türkiye, brings no benefit to Turkishness, only harm.

Is it not time to make them pay the price of this harm through the judicial route? In fact, should not the prosecutors act on their own initiative in this matter? These discourses directly constitute a threat to Türkiye's internal peace and security.

And should not the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as a directly concerned party, and the Ministry of the Interior, because they are disturbing the peace and security of society, take action against those who commit these racist hate crimes?