After the abuses in Kayseri, tensions over refugees arose in many parts of the city. Attacks on Turkish flags in Syria further escalated tensions. Karar newspaper reporter Şenol Karçi also assessed the incident based on the signs he saw in his column today. Stating that he saw the inscription “Belongs to the Turks” in a Quranic class, Karçi said, “Many people think of people who were massacred in the past who had signs on their doors.”
Here is an article by Şenol Kaluç:
“My relatives who joined the army in the early 80s had an unfortunate incident after entering the barracks. As you know, it was a time when beatings were common in the army. They would surrender to the barracks along with familiar villagers who were nearby. They would play along with nature when they were overseas or in the army.
After three or five days, when the senior team disappears, the sergeants gather the newly arrived soldiers and pull them into the line. One of them comes forward and says, “Let the wheat go over there, and the barley over there!” He orders. The soldiers split into two groups, asking what is wheat and what is barley, and the two friends are surprised and do not know what barley means or what wheat means, and three to five of them stay in the barley.
After that, a comfortable heartbeat begins. The two of them were subjected to violence by their superiors every night without knowing why, and for about two weeks they continued to peel potatoes and wash dishes in the kitchen until the morning.
On a typical evening when there was another assault, the assaulted sergeant was caught by the night watchman’s lieutenant who had just arrived at the battalion. When the inspector asked what was going on, our man mustered up the courage to say, “How many more blows will he take?” He explains:
When he asked the sergeants what was going on, they started thinking of other reasons, but they couldn’t figure them out. Of course, the lieutenant didn’t understand what he meant, so he asked, “I was asking about the wheat and barley problem,” but the lieutenant became enraged by the answer and said, “I’ll tell you who’s the wheat and who’s the barley now.” He ran over the assaulting sergeants like a train, stripped them of their ranks, and sent them to a disco.
It was discovered that the senior sergeants had been giving barley to the Alevis in the battalion and wheat to the Sunnis.
After being beaten multiple times, his friend was shocked to find out the reason for the beatings, because he had been beaten for no reason for two weeks, and continued to complain afterwards that he was beaten for no reason because he would not leave him alone.
The year is 1999. A close friend from my college days is doing his military service in Mamak. One day, I went to visit him to get a market permit. As we sat chatting in a cafe, my friend, who often got into trouble because of his Alevism, proudly began telling me about an incident that had left me perplexed.
He began to boast that he had made the eastern soldiers who came to his cell sing the national anthem loudly every morning and evening when he was left in charge of company, that he had made his ward do his laundry and make his bed every day, etc. My friend who complained about Alevism did not even realize what he was doing oppressing others simply because they were Kurdish.
I simply explained to my friend, in a nice, slightly sarcastic way, how vile and racist they were behaving.
***
When a Turk talks about racism, he thinks that racism is simply a distinction between blacks and whites. Naturally, he believes that his racist behavior is not racism, since there are very few black people in our country.
Now, this theory of mine has become history with recent events in key centres like Ankara. This proved to be futile as an increasing number of Somalis tried to make a living off their labour and capital in Ankara.
A Somali restaurant that I had visited once or twice in the past few years because I was intrigued by its menu has closed down due to pressure and attacks. There are still many Somali people living in this area, but I was sad to see that they are no longer as cheerful as they once were and are becoming more anxious.
When I see a photo taken from the attacked area of Kayseri with the words “Quran Courses are for Turks”, I am sure that like me, you are aware of the ethnic, religious and political issues in the country. Many of those who are marginalized for various reasons will remember those who in the past had their doors marked and were subsequently killed.
But my greatest sadness is to see some of the children of people who once had their doors marked and wanted to be killed, running, with gasoline in their hands, towards this hostility towards refugees.
For a mentally healthy person, it is truly frightening to see that among the messages commemorating Madumak on July 2nd and Bashbaral on July 5th, there are also messages in support of the pogrom in Kayseri at the same time on the same day.
We are a country that has spent days punching each other over the meaning of footballer transfers, yet we are unable to foster any spirit of unity in this country.
While all this is happening, social media is flooded with millions of messages full of racism and hostility, many of which begin with, “I’m not racist, but…”
People who sent hundreds of thousands of messages to a footballer who was born and raised in Germany and who for various reasons was not selected for the national team because he had no emotional connection to Turkey, for some reason saying “son of a child”, a guy who was selected for the German national team and played for many years, said “I feel German”, “Come to Turkey”, they feel proud to be a Turk in that position.
Which is more honest and wonderful: the one that doesn’t fool anyone, or the one that gives color to the situation?
“Really, what is wheat and what is barley in this country?”
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