The message has reached its destination

First, let us note here once more: xenophobia itself is an ideology foreign to Türkiye, to Turkish culture, history, faith and social fabric. The thousand-year culture and civilization on these lands is witness to this. Setting aside every kind of bombast and romanticization of history and culture, the social and cultural diversity preserved in Türkiye for a thousand years shows that the concept most foreign to these lands is "foreignness."

Second, the xenophobic discourses said to have risen recently are discourses whose visibility has increased in Türkiye through the provocations of a small, organized minority and through organized media work. The Turkish people have never been in an approach that would deserve the accusation of "xenophobe." Whenever the organized, even partisan, group in question comes out among the people, it meets serious reactions from wide segments of the people.

I would say these people cannot come out among the people, but I cannot; their faces are like cowhide, masha'Allah. They meet the reactions of the sensible Turkish people with incredible shamelessness and carry on their way without caring at all. Examples of the reactions these circles get from ordinary Turkish people are far, far more numerous than examples of attacks on foreigners. In contrast, the reasons why it is the "xenophobia" discourses that come to the fore more, and not the reactions the Turkish people show to the racists, need to be examined well.

These discourses are also treated as perfect scoring passes by the Arab-racist collaborators in the Arab world, and they too blow these news items up more. Those who practice racism in the name of Turkishness have nothing to do with Turkishness, and those who practice racism in the name of Arabs have nothing to do with Arabness. The racists of both sides pass the ball to each other very well and together try to sabotage Turkish-Arab brotherhood. With these efforts the way of a strong Türkiye is blocked. Ditches are dug in the path of a strong Arab world or Islamic world.

Out of the need to announce more loudly that the people of Türkiye are free of this racism and that Turks are never, and cannot be, racist, a group of journalists, writers and academics, among whom I too was, wanted to raise a voice in recent days. It released a joint video message about the acts and discourses that have recently turned into open hate crimes, especially toward Arabs. The message, in which everyone who took part read one sentence of the text, in total is as follows:

"Peace be upon all Muslims on earth from the Turkish nation. Heed this call. Believers are a single body, and there are those who want to tear and divide this body. Just as there are good people in every community, there are also bad people. Recently some persons who claim to be Turkish are trying to sow seeds of racism in our country. We are aware of this danger and, as Turkish journalists, we felt the need to make this call. Just as they did 100 years ago, today too they are trying to sow discord among Muslims. We Turks are a nation that has been known for hospitality in every period of history and has embraced Muslims. Those who practice racism claiming to be Turkish have nothing, near or far, to do with the values of the Turkish nation. These racist attacks by a minority group do not represent the Turkish nation. None of us accepts racism; racism is haram in Islam. All together we are a single people; we are Turks, we are Kurds, we are Arabs, we are Georgians and the others; all of us are parts of the same nation. Though our skin colors differ, our hearts are colorless. Racism is a disease that hinders the progress of humanity. We Muslims are brothers from eternity to eternity and will remain so. We are a single nation."

This message hit its mark in the Arab world; it was valued as a very strong voice against the campaigns recently waged about Türkiye's image. Everyone who watched the video was reminded again that Türkiye, as a state and nation that has for years spread its wing over oppressed people, does not deserve this perception. In Arab social media this video reached millions of viewers and had a great positive effect.

However, the reactions shown by the same racist circles to the video, every sentence and expression of which can be read exactly as above, showed that the message had hit its mark on this side too. In fact it was a message trying to restore the image of the Turkish nation they are trying to tear down: noble, honorable, magnanimous, heroic, protector of the oppressed, terror of the oppressor. Their being disturbed by this revealed their true nature.

Some of the reactions, for example, labeled the message as Arab-loving. It is the very height of nonsense, but when they say "Arab-lover," it is also an exposure of the hate and hostility crime they commit. Why should loving the Arabs, or loving any other people, be a fault for a Turk, unless the liver of the approach that sees it as a fault is soiled with the filth of racism? Besides, in which part of these sentences is there an emphasis on Arabness, in which part is there a glorification of Arabs, in which part is there a claim of superiority of Arabs over any other people? Really, who is reading it from where? In Türkiye, unfortunately, the layer upon layer of disgusting racist hate language contained in the expression "Arab-lover" has still not been sufficiently questioned. When it is scratched a little, what betrayals, what foreignness will come out from underneath; let this too be noted down aside.

There should be no need to explain to readers that the text's addressee is the whole Islamic world, that no apology is being begged from anyone, that the news appearing in the media of the Islamic world about the people of Türkiye lately is being corrected, and that a message of brotherhood is being given in response. We have nothing to say to those who do not want Muslim brotherhood, but let those who are like that not claim the right to speak in the name of the Turkish nation. Whoever does not believe in Muslim brotherhood has no right to speak in the name of Turkishness either.

Some of the reactions that came also characterized this action as an apology for the beating a Kuwaiti received in Trabzon. It has nothing to do with it. First of all, the whole story of that incident is not as reflected in the media. First of all, that incident has nothing to do with an attack on Arabs either. It is a situation consisting entirely of a customer-tradesman dispute, but unfortunately it was presented in Türkiye as a racist attack. In fact this video message was prepared also as an objection to the presentation of such incidents as racism.

Indeed the message has hit its mark; the brothers understood what they needed to understand and showed their understanding, and the noise of those who have no share in brotherhood proves this sufficiently.