On May 13, 2014 there was a terrible explosion in a Turkish
mine, 8 miles away from Soma (popl. c. 25,000), a small town in the district of
Manisa in the Aegean region of Turkey. It was one of the worst tragedies in
modern Turkey that claimed the life of 302 individuals. When the Turkish
prime-minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan visited the area, he was confronted by
an angry mob. During the melee, the PM confronted someone in the group, and
reportedly said something like “What the f. do you think you are running to? O
Israeli scum (“İsrail Dölü”).”
Except that the word translated here as “scum” in English has a vulgar sexual
connotation in Turkish. This is the same Erdogan who, during the 2009 World Economic Forum
at Davos, Switzerland, gave a short talk accusing Israel of indiscriminately murdering
Palestinian children, and walked out of the dais, leaving behind a totally
surprised Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, as well as other members of
the panel.
The scandal of Soma affected Turkish citizens deeply; they
are demanding whether or not there was a cover up for criminal negligence on the part
of mine’s owner and manager. It also shocked the dwindling Jewish population (now
at c. 17, 000) in Turkey, fearing that this could be the beginning of a new
anti-Jewish wave by other Turks.
The Turkish friends with whom I am in touch are terribly upset. Some stated that they need to apologize to their
Jewish neighbors for this unacceptable slur. Can
you imagine any Western political leader saying something similar, and getting away with it? No way! He/she would be out of a job the
next day! This time Erdogan showed his real face when he uttered those
despicable words.
There are anti-semites everywhere, but I do not consider all
Turks anti-Jewish or anti-Israel. I did not experience anti-Jewish attacks when I was
in law school or when I was in the Turkish military (I was an officer in the
tank corps and a member of military court). I still have dear friends there who are Muslim. Does that mean that Turkey is
devoid of prejudice? No. I remember when I was child, my mother and I
were on a boat crossing the Bosphorus, and as usual we were speaking among
ourselves in Ladino, when an obnoxious guy approached us and yelled, “Jew,
speak Turkish!” I was in shock. But I also recall that during Easter we
never went by a Greek Orthodox Church for fear that Greek thugs would come out
to beat us kids because “we killed Christ.”
The Turkish government has started an investigation of this
tragic event. I hope they will discover the real cause of the fire, take precautions
so that it does not happen again, punish the culprits, and learn how to
confront people, especially the mourners, with dignity and respect.
As to Erdogan, I hope this is the end of the rope for him.
He must apologize and perhaps leave politics to those who are better than him.
Will this happen? I don’t know. He is
still very popular among many people….
Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.
May 2014
