Turks resort to violence to ‘protect’ their national flag

Patriotism mounts in Turkey as old rivals unite against perceived threats

A Turkish man sells national flags in downtown Istanbul last December as Muslim girls with headscarves walk by behind him. Ankara was granted a starting date for EU accession talks at an EU summit in Brussels later that month.

By Burak Bekdil - Kathimerini English Edition

Throughout the 1970s the Turks were a violently divided nation, with ultranationalist and communist militants killing each other — and scores of innocent youths — for the most trivial symbolism, the choice of a newspaper, a song, or a coffee house.

When Turkey’s last military coup ended the savage streetfighting in 1980, thousands were already dead and thousands of others were in jail or torture chambers. There are no longer brutal killings along ideological lines, but a quietly rising nationalism in Turkey looks like a slow-fuse time bomb.

Unlike the 1970s, though, there is a bizarre balance of divisions this time. The pan-Turkists and former Maoists and Marxists are no longer the enemy camps; instead, in an unusual alliance, they seem to have united under an odd mix of nationalism and anti-Americanism.

Last month, tens of thousands of Turks gathered in demonstrations throughout the country, “to pay respect to the Turkish flag.” The broadcasting watchdog urged the television stations to display the Turkish flag in one corner of their screens. All that was in response to the actions of a bunch of Kurdish kids, aged between 12 and 18, who had burned the Turkish flag during a pro-PKK gathering.

Nationalism has invariably been an explosive subject in Turkey. The incidents last week have proved that it still is. With a bit of pure luck, a genuine tragedy has been averted.

A bunch of leftist youths in the Black Sea port of Trabzon, among them two girls, were distributing leaflets calling for support for leftist inmates when a group of locals thought them to be PKK militants. After a brawl in the heart of the town, the leftists started to run away from an increasingly angry and larger crowd that chased them for about 600 meters. When the group was finally cornered, more than 1,000 people had already joined the manhunt as word had falsely spread through the neighborhood that PKK members had burned the Turkish flag.

Luckily, only minutes before the lynching attempt police squads were able to hide the horrified youths in a nearby office building. The police chief of the town, no doubt a sensible man, failed to convince the crowd that no flags had been burned, but was able to put the youths into an armored police car.

By then the crowd had been reinforced, numbering around 2,000, some of whom attacked the police vehicle to capture the boys and girls in it for an apparent on-the-spot lynching. Fortunately the police were able to drive them to safety.

A series of relatively minor incidents based on the same theme — violent nationalism — has taken place since the unfortunate (and fortunate) affair in Trabzon. These days, thousands of Turks are just too combustible, ready to resort to violence at the first sign of what they see as anti-Turkish sentiment.

And the prospects may be even gloomier. Spring is the time that the PKK usually resumes its attacks on Turkish targets as warm weather enables its members to venture out of their hideouts. There may be renewed violence in parts of Turkey soon.

Separately, increased Western pressure on Ankara regarding the Armenian genocide claims is already showing signs of fueling nationalism in Turkey. As the pressure mounts on the 90th anniversary of the tragic incidents in Ottoman Turkey, the Turks will feel more unnerved and be pushed into a kind of “nationalistic self-defense.”

Add to all that the parallel feelings of hostility to the US support for Iraqi Kurds and mounting anti-Americanism on almost every corner of Turkey, the entire picture will be a perfect recipe for what may turn into an explosive blend of nationalism and anti-Western thinking.

There may be political repercussions too. If Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan calculates that his government, shakier than ever before, could make political gains out of this new tide of nationalism, he may tend to give up some of his pro-EU, pro-reformist policies.

Worse, the nationalistic elements within the state establishment — call them the “sleepers” in the process of Turkey’s pro-EU reforms — may wake up to play their part in the game. Even in the most optimistic scenario, that would only mean a major slippage in Turkey’s EU efforts, and if things go from bad to worse, political isolation for Ankara.

Judging from the “highly symbolic incidents,” it will not be wrong to argue that the picture is gloomy. If Erdogan is a wise man he should not be politically tempted by the rising nationalism; instead, he should stay away from it.

As for the Turks who love their flag, they should find better ways to express love for their country than waving the Crescent and Star at every occasion or attempting to lynch young boys and girls. There must be better ways to love a country where 80 percent of those ostensibly paying tax are tax evaders, a quarter of all households consume stolen electricity, half the economy is “underground” and corruption is endemic.