“It will last until the Day of Judgment”: the Turks showed their attitude towards the war in Israel

I was at one such rally three hours away from Istanbul. Everything is quite decent and within the law. Some people hold Palestinian flags in their hands, but there are many more Turkish ones. Turks are generally great patriots. And sincerely, and not by order from above.

What worries them most today is the economic crisis in Turkey itself. The lira has fallen by more than a third over the past year. Only the ruble behaves worse than the lira, so in this regard not only our countries are similar, but also our currencies.

And then there was the sudden outbreak of war in the Middle East. The next one. One of. But it threatens to develop into something more. For relaxed Turkey, this is, of course, beyond the bounds. After all, Muslims are suffering, so there are no options but to support them.

The Turks are also Muslims, but quite secular, and girls in Istanbul dress almost more frivolously than here in Moscow. Even in the fall, many people sport short skirts, like Eda from the world-famous TV series “Knock on My Door,” Turkey’s most successful export product in recent years.

Islamic radicals from Hamas, seeking to establish a theocratic paradise under Sharia law in the Middle East, clearly would not like such skirts. But the fact of the matter is that normal Turks do not stand for Hamas, but for ordinary Palestinians who were unlucky enough to be born on a poor reservation and who are actually now on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe.

In a huge metropolis, divided into two parts of the world by the Bosphorus – Asia and Europe – rallies in support of Palestine are held non-stop. Protesters in Istanbul attacked the Israeli embassy, ​​which is located in Europe, at night. The windows of the nearby McDonald’s were broken. They were dispersed with tear gas.

The day before, Lebanese Hezbollah called on Muslims around the world to organize a Day of Wrath on October 18 – because of the deaths of 800 people in the Al-Ahly Al-Maadani hospital in the Gaza Strip, as the Al Arabiya TV channel clarified the data on the victims.

“Nobody respected the law”

In Antalya I met an American Jewish woman who was vacationing here by the sea. Last Friday, when the previous Day of Wrath was declared, she refused to leave her hotel room.

Turkish Jews, who have lived in Turkey since the times of the Ottoman Empire, generally do not speak out on the topic of the current conflict and do not take sides. “We try not to get involved in politics, because it disrupts our own lives, we still understand that we live in a Muslim state, no matter how tolerant it may seem at first glance, but it is clear that what is happening in the Middle East it needs to end – and as soon as possible,” one of the residents of Istanbul, who is of Jewish origin, agreed to comment on the current situation in a very vague way.

“In general, the people of Turkey are in favor of returning the status quo and state borders to the situation in 1947,” Turkish journalist Abdurrahman Kamburoğlu also expressed his point of view. – The majority, of course, supports the people of Palestine, but otherwise the political relations between Turkey and Israel have long been quite complicated. In 2010, we experienced an aggravation when the Turkish “Freedom Flotilla” was captured, which was carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, as a result of an Israeli attack, several passengers were killed, dozens of people were wounded, including one American, and several ships were captured. Nobody followed any legal norms – Israel did what it wanted then.”

The “Freedom Flotilla” was equipped at the initiative of the Turkish human rights organization for the protection of human rights and freedoms and humanitarian assistance.

No weapons or anything prohibited were found on it, so such an inadequate reaction could not but arouse the anger of all Muslims, as well as human rights activists around the world. This tragedy, no one knows how many, has complicated the situation in the region and intensified debate about the legality and propriety of the harsh measures taken by Israel. There were also protests, and threatening calls to the UN. Has anything changed since then? If only for the worse.

Everyone against everyone

“Strange as it may seem, the aggravation of political relations between our countries due to that incident in 2010 did not in any way affect the economic ties that continue to develop,” says the journalist.

What’s strange here? The world in general is now full of contradictions and complete double standards prevail. What one side prohibits itself, it criticizes on the other. “I can, but you can’t” – this is a very convenient position. Like a child who does not yet recognize any rules. The war against everyone ends in the final defeat of common sense.

And now, on the one hand, there are killed Israelis and kidnapped hostages.

On the other hand, there are hundreds of victims of a bombed hospital in the Gaza Strip and more than a million refugees that no one needs. Neither Egypt, nor Jordan, nor Turkey. “We are currently having discussions about providing asylum to approximately 500 thousand Palestinians, but all this is ambiguously perceived by society and causes great controversy,” explains Abdurrahman Kamburoğlu.

Yes, no one is really interested in poor, hungry and angry people, who, undoubtedly, can become a breeding ground for even greater radicalism and crisis in the region.

So where should we put them now? Nobody knows this.

Until Judgment Day

It was impossible to begin carpet bombing in an area of ​​dense urban development with the remaining civilian population, no matter how much one would want it in righteous anger. This is contrary to the Additional Protocol to the 1977 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, dated 8 June 1977, which explicitly defines the concept of the civilian population and prohibits attacks of an indiscriminate nature unless they are directed at specific military objectives. The hospital in Gaza is not a military facility, although it is possible that Israel’s enemies are hiding in the tunnels underneath it. But this has not been proven. And footage of dead Palestinians is shown on all world channels.

It was impossible to declare to Netanyahu that he would raze the Gaza Strip to the ground and that there were “no terrorists” there. Now he has been reminded of this; such slogans are also heard at rallies in Turkey.

Nobody believes the current statements of the Israeli authorities that “the Palestinians are shooting at themselves,” and “we are only hitting military targets.” Netanyahu publicly promised to turn the “city of Evil” into ruins. He did not make any exceptions regarding Al-Ahli Al-Maadani Hospital.

It is more than reckless not to assume that the Islamic world will rise up in defense of fellow believers. In the parade of hatred, the one with more experience always wins. He’s just playing on his own field.

“I thought for a long time and came to the conclusion that this conflict – territorial, religious – will never be over, it simply does not have a solution that suits all parties,” says independent journalist Abdurrahman Kamburoglu. “Therefore, it can last until the Day of Judgment, which everyone is now bringing closer with their actions.”

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