Just a few days ago terrorists, according to the NY Times from ISIL, killed 44 people in an attack on Turkey’s biggest airport. Just three months before, on March 13, 37 people were killed by a bomb set off by Kurdish militants in Ankara. And just a few months before that more than 100 people were killed by yet another bomb at a peace rally, also in Ankara. However, in neither of these cases the expressions of compassion from the West amounted to what we saw after the ‘Je Suis Charlie’ attack. Or after the November 2015 attacks in France. Or after the airport bombings in Brussels this year. Or after the Orlando killings last month – you get the idea.
It is not as if the West ignored the terror in Turkey. Many heads of state and government condemned the attacks as ‘hideous’ (David Cameron) and promised to ‘stay united with the Turkish people in the fight against terror’ (Angela Merkel). There is, however, a distinct lack of displays of compassion in many other areas: no Facebook app that allows you to overlay your profile picture with the Turkish flag; no moment of silence at the Euro-Cup (after all Turkey had already been knocked out, says the UEFA); and only a few countries illuminated prominent structures in the colours of Turkey.
This lack of compassion is criticised now, and has been criticised before, on social media platforms and throughout the internet (e.g. The Guardian, The Independent, The Huffington Post).
But what are the reasons that fewer people display compassion towards Turkey than towards western countries when a terror attack happens? Is it because it is a mostly Muslim country? Is it because it borders the Middle-East? Do people just not care? I think two major influences are the number of terror attacks and the apparent cultural and geographical distance between Turkey and most Western countries.
First of all, terror attacks are unfortunately prevalent in Turkey – much more prevalent than in western countries. In the last 12 months alone, Turkey suffered 14 terrorist attacks with a total of 285 people being murdered. In the same timeframe, 4 terror attacks killed 174 people throughout the entire European Union. This does, of course, not mean that the attacks in the EU are in any way more devastating than the ones in Turkey or that Turkish victims deserve less compassion and attention just because there are more of them – all these attacks are horrible and need to be condemned. But it is the case that the more often something happens, the more people get used to it and the less interest they show. The simple fact that, at the moment, Turkey experiences on average one terror attack a month means that an attack in Turkey is less surprising to people than one in the West and triggers less of an emotional response. In other words, paradoxically, more suffering leads to less compassion in this case.
This also shows in Western responses to other incidents. Mass shootings in the US are often reported on the day by European media but are rarely followed up. Public displays of compassion seldom happen (with the recent exception of the Orlando shooting). This is, arguably, because such mass shootings happen on a regular basis in the states and regrettably people now expect them to happen to a degree. The same is true for the atrocities that ISIL commits in the area that is controlled by them in the middle-east. Despite having killed more than 1000 people in several massacres and bombings (that were unrelated to their military campaign) this year alone, displays of compassion were rare in the West, as well as in other countries closer to the area. The victims of these incidents are just as human as we are and deserve just as much compassion. Unfortunately, they died in circumstances that are part of a prolonged series of events. That means that people don’t give them the attention and sympathy they deserve and that the victims would receive had they been killed in different circumstances.
I mentioned another reason why people make fewer displays of compassion towards the attacks in Turkey. People feel that Turkey is a country that is relatively distant compared to other European countries. That means that people don’t pay as much attention to what happens there and don’t get as involved as they probably should. It is, of course, true, that the USA are much further away from Europe than Turkey (indeed Turkey is part of Europe and not far away at all), yet people still followed the Orlando shooting and displayed solidarity. But Americans and American culture are prevalent in the media and due to the States clearly being part of ‘The West’ people feel it is close. Moreover, coverage of the Orlando shooting in Europe, although extensive, was less elaborate than coverage of the Paris and Brussels attacks, showing that people are more interested in what happens closer to them.
As horrible as the attacks in Turkey (and in other countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and more) are – the reason that people in the West show fewer displays of compassion is not because they think terror in Turkey is not noteworthy or less important than in Europe or America. It is because, to many people, Turkey seems far away and, to many people, the prevalence of terror attacks in Turkey means they don’t feel that they need to show extraordinary displays of compassion. However, people still care about the victims and they realise how horrendous these attacks are. Their behaviour, in most cases, does not mean they see attacks in the West as more disturbing, horrible, or despicable – just as more surprising and closer to home.
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