{"id":29475,"date":"2019-07-19T21:29:38","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T21:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/?p=29475"},"modified":"2019-07-19T21:31:18","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T21:31:18","slug":"love-it-or-leave-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/love-it-or-leave-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Love it or leave it"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In almost every European city where Turkish immigrants live, it is common to see supporters of Turkey\u2019s ruling party or the fans of a victorious football club taking to streets with motorcades, honking and cheering, shouting slogans and waving their flags.<\/p>\n

Here in London, too, Turks celebrate or protest significant events taking place in their homeland by gathering in capital\u2019s main squares, with their scarves, placards and giant Turkish flags.<\/p>\n

Turkish is one of the most common languages spoken on the streets of London. \u00a0Doctors\u2019 surgeries, local government offices and schools are expected to provide information leaflets in Turkish as well as other widely spoken foreign languages.<\/p>\n

Judging by the number of football fan clubs, businesses and restaurants carrying the name of Black Sea towns, there must be a sizable community of Turks from the region living in the UK.<\/p>\n

I cannot help wondering \u00a0how they react to news from their homeland, such as the latest one <\/a>\u00a0from Trabzon\u2019s \u00c7aykara district, where \u00a0a group of Iraqi Kurdish tourists, visiting a popular tourism spot at Uzung\u00f6l, \u00a0were attacked by some locals for wearing a scarf with \u2018Kurdistan\u2019 written on it.<\/p>\n

Iraq\u2019s Kurdistan Regional Government is recognized by Turkey as an autonomous entity and its flag is prominently displayed in bilateral official meetings. Yet, a written statement<\/a> released by the Governor\u2019s Office in Trabzon after the incident said that the tourists in question were the ones detained and investigated for displaying the scarf. The Iraqi Kurdish tourists were later deported.<\/p>\n

It is not the first time that hate-driven mob attacks by ultra-nationalists against minorities or foreigners are hitting the headlines in Turkey. Impunity for such crimes is not unusual either.<\/p>\n

Anti-immigrant attitudes and xenophobia are rising everywhere. Resentment and hostility, especially towards Syrian refugees, are becoming commonplace. Strained relations with the USA and NATO over the purchase of Russian S-400 missile system and the growing tensions over the East Mediterranean are stoking already well-entrenched anti-western sentiments.<\/p>\n

The favourite slogan of the nationalist right on the street, \u201clove it or leave it\u201d, is now being uttered, without embarrassment, by politicians in the highest positions of leadership.<\/p>\n

Much more chilling is the fact that this kind of divisive, demonising demagoguery is no longer commonplace only in countries where illiberal populists rule. It is progressively moving into the mainstream everywhere. From Trump\u2019s America to Boris Johnson\u2019s and Nigel Farage\u2019s Britain, the shadow of bigotry, growing darker by the day, is making an already uphill push back in countries like Turkey ever more difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In almost every European city where Turkish immigrants live, it is common to see supporters of Turkey\u2019s ruling party or the fans of a victorious football club taking to streets with motorcades, honking and cheering, shouting slogans and waving their flags. Here in London, too, Turks celebrate or protest significant events taking place in their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29475"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29485,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29475\/revisions\/29485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}