This operation against Turkey has a price!

Last week Turkey was subjected, starting from Kayseri, to a major operation whose ground and social base had been prepared stitch by stitch for years. That the images produced in the operation that began in Kayseri triggered an entirely opposite provocation in the regions in northern Syria under Turkey's control may seem like an inevitable consequence of the event, but only if the event in Kayseri too is accepted as a spontaneous, inevitable social explosion...

Yet the event in Kayseri did not develop spontaneously. It did not emerge as a natural reaction of the people of Kayseri to the Syrian refugees from whom they are claimed to have suffered for years. There is certainly a section among the people of Kayseri who are disturbed by the presence of Syrian asylum seekers and want them to go home as soon as possible. When a microphone is held out, a great many stones may spill from their skirts; a great many people can be found who can say in one breath that the cause of the present unemployment, of inflation, of all the crime in society, of the rise in violence against women, of corruption, of possible disruptions of services in hospitals, is Syrians.

But the existence of these people does not show that the people of Kayseri have the capacity to turn such a level of anger toward Syrian refugees into a social explosion. Not only in Kayseri but nowhere in Turkey does opposition to migrants have the power to be the source of such an anger. Perhaps, to the extent that it has been politicized beyond measure in general, and that politicians see it as a profitable field and keep stirring it, initial opinions on this subject turn into serious discontent, but to the extent of leading to a social explosion

never.

Let alone a social explosion: we have had so many elections, and although the issue of Syrian asylum seekers was stirred so much by the opposition that it almost became one of the few priority subjects of the elections, the AK Party continued to win all the elections. In fact, since the 2019 elections the ruling party took these racist anti-migrant grumblings more seriously than necessary, and even though it gave these concerns more weight than necessary and, unfortunately, even turned its discourse and policies on the matter increasingly into policies of combating asylum seekers, it could not escape losing the Istanbul and Ankara municipalities.

The reason it lost the elections was never humane asylum seeker policies. Within the anger that had reached a certain level against the government in the 2019 Istanbul elections, the part related to asylum seekers was not even a drop in the ocean. Indeed, in the elections repeated after the annulment of the elections, while the margin that was at the level of 12 thousand at the start rose to 800 thousand, it was seen very clearly that migrant policies had no role in this. The same migrant issue was again on the agenda in the 2023 presidential elections and was expected to determine the outcome, but did not determine it at all; on the contrary, Erdoğan won the elections again.

Unfortunately, as we headed into the latest local elections, this situation could not be properly diagnosed and distinguished. It was supposed that the elections would be won if asylum seekers were fought at the cost of exceeding humane standards. With the tight controls carried out, our big cities reached the point where Syrian asylum seekers could not go out on the street. Persons showing the slightest hesitation over their ID were packed into buses and sent to return centers. Workplaces in Istanbul employing Syrian workers came to the brink of closing. Those who were even slightly late in proving their identity and their presence in the city found themselves in return centers and then in Syria. As elections approached, by reducing the visibility of foreigners in Istanbul and Ankara, the aim was to give a message to the public (by now no one is that public).

However, these policies not only did not win the vote of anyone who already hated Syrians and wanted them to go, but also distorted the stance of the AK Party, which for years had given it quality and depth in humane politics. The veins that make the AK Party the AK Party and that connect it to the spiritual roots of our civilization were virtually dried up by these indifferent practices. The prayers of asylum seekers, the oppressed, the victims were with the AK Party. Now go and look for the victims, if you can find them, go and reach the oppressed, if you can reach them, enter those hearts, if you can enter, and see what you will see in place of those bridges of prayer. As the poet says, "Come, enter my heart, see there what calamity is."

Leaving behind the sturdy dwellings in the hearts of asylum seekers, the oppressed, the victims, where there is no intermediary between them and God, we tried to enter the barren hearts of arrogant racists who know neither service, nor brotherhood, nor nation, nor friendship, nor blessing, and who appreciate no effort. You cannot enter that heart. For the dried-up hearts of people who are blind to Gaza, indifferent to the oppressed, malicious to their neighbor, heroic toward the weak, and servile slaves to the strong, there is no key to enter, nothing to revive them.

With the policies applied recently, it was as if an attempt was made to enter these hearts, to please these racists, but as we tried to please them, we faced losing our moral, humane ground. On top of that, these racists have grown more and more spoiled. They began to demand more. Such an operation comes right on the day after the announcement that contacts had begun, in order to eventually be able to send the Syrians back, even with Assad, who has committed crimes against humanity against his own people.

Those carrying out the operation are trying to give it the appearance of a social movement, but there is no possibility that it is a spontaneous reaction of the people of Kayseri, who have established traditions, identity and character. It is clear that days earlier militants of a racist political party had made their preparations by profiling, one by one, the homes and workplaces belonging to Syrians in Kayseri and publishing this on social media. People were transported to the site of the action by trucks, and even the staging of the action in the video said to have triggered the event, and the putting of the video on air, were part of the operation.

Only a few points on what this operation has cost Turkey: the bridges of hearts that Turkey has been building in the Arab world for years were targeted. Because of these images alone, tens of thousands of Gulf tourists canceled their trips to Turkey. Again from the Gulf, many serious investors have begun withdrawing their investments in Turkey and shifting them elsewhere. I had written about this earlier too.

It would be fine if it stopped there. The rising hostility toward Arabs sticks on Turkey perceptions such as racism, xenophobia, untrustworthiness, instability. The aim has been the effect of thwarting some moves Turkey wants to make in Syria, which of course spoil the games of both the USA and Israel. God willing, these aims will not succeed, but this does not change the fact that what has been done aimed deliberately at such a destructive target against Turkey.

The first step to be taken at this stage is to investigate all the dimensions of this operation and to take the necessary measures so that it does not recur.

For this, we must turn back from the policies that spoil the racist peddlers of politics concerning asylum seekers, and begin by restoring the ground of humane politics. We must know that there is no way of appeasing racists that does not require giving up yourself, and ignore them. The price of these acts, which do more harm to Turkey than the most destructive terror acts and which bear the fingerprints of MOSSAD and the CIA, must absolutely be made to be paid, and the way must be opened to prosecute these inciting acts and discourses.