Over the past months, the fight against ISIS in Kobani and the attitude of the Turkish government towards the Kurds has continued to top the agenda of Turkey social media networks [1] In addition, anti-American public discourse is expanding in Turkey, and making its mark in both the public and virtual spheres. Violent demonstrations erupted across Turkey in November after an extended period in which the Turkish government avoided taking a clear position in the struggle against ISIS, and continued to deny Peşmerge Kurdish fighters from Iraq permission to cross through Turkish territory so they could join the defense of Kobani. Calm was restored only after jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan issued a conciliatory call at the behest of the Turkish government. The cooperation between PKK and Ankara must be understood against the backdrop of the peace process that is still developing between the parties. Succumbing to a combination of international pressure by its allies in NATO and internal pressure applied by the Kurds, the Turkish government finally agreed to allow Turkish fighters to pass through its territory. This agreement led to a further round of reactions, on both sides, on Turkish social media. While the Kurds celebrated the opening of the border crossing, both online and in the streets, by flying the flag of Kurdistan (see picture), Turkish nationalists expressed concern that the presence of Peşmerge would reinforce the PKK over the border. [2]
Many Turks expressed doubts about the motivation behind the pressure from NATO to open the border crossing. Among their claims was the contention that NATO was attempting to damage critical Turkish interests. This mood is reflected, inter alia, in a survey conducted by the American research Center PEW, which found that 70% of the Turks did not support continued membership in NATO. [3] Moreover, the survey testifies to an extreme low in the image of the United States in Turkey with 73% of the respondents expressing a negative attitude towards the US. We can assume that the attacks of the US Air Force in Iraq and Syria in previous weeks reinforced the Turks’ sense of alienation, as only 7% of the respondents in Turkey expressed support for those attacks. [4]
The crisis in the relationship between Turkey and the United States began during the presidency of George W. Bush when Turkey refused to take part in the coalition fighting Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and the US passed two clearly anti-Turkish measures: they refused to allow Turkish companies to work on the rehabilitation of Iraq after the war, and imposed severe limitations on the presence of Turkish covert agents and military personnel in Iraq, and particularly in its Kurdish region. US-Turkey relations reached its nadir on July 4, 2003 (US Independence Day) when American soldiers raided the headquarters of the Turkish soldiers in Iraq. The operation itself and the denigrating photographs of Turkish soldiers, with their hands cuffed and heads in hoods, published in its aftermath shocked the Turkish collective. This is clearly evident in the Turkish movie “Valley of the Wolves: Iraq,” in which the hero is a Turkish secret agent who takes revenge on the American soldiers who participated in the raid. Further tangible proof of this downturn in public opinion was the incident that occurred on November 12, 2014 in Istanbul. At dawn, activists from the Youth Union of Turkey (TGB) ambushed American sailors disembarking from the USS Ross, which was anchored in port after returning from an NATO intelligence mission in the Black Sea. The activists attacked the sailors and even managed to cover the heads of three seamen with hoods (pictured), clear evidence that even today, more than a decade after the notorious raid, Turks still hold a deep grudge against Americans. On SNS, users celebrated the “hood event” using the slogan “Hoods for the US, from TGB." [5]
It is important to emphasize that members of TGB are Kemalists who consider the US responsible for paving Erdoğan’s way to power. They claim that Washington (and particularly President Obama) is trying to promote moderate Islam in Turkey at the expense of secular society, as part of a “Greater Middle East Project,” in hopes that it will become an example for other Middle Eastern countries. Conversely, it must be noted that anti-American sentiment in Turkey is not necessarily evidence of increasing support for Islamists, including ISIS. A survey conducted by the Turkish firm Metropoll showed that 92.5% of the respondents despise the organization and 80.6% consider it a terrorist organization. [6] The capture of 49 Turkish diplomats last July [7] and the extremely disturbing videos of ISIS executions are among the many factors contributing to the poor reputation of ISIS. Its publications have drawn severe criticism in Turkey because of the tremendous damage they are doing to the reputation of Islam. Many users have declared that its members are not Muslims, but rather extremists who speak in the name of Islam only in order to gain the support of Muslims.
In conclusion, the discourse on SNS, in public opinion surveys, and reports of establishment media in Turkey all show that the “average Turk” is uninterested in having his country join the battle against ISIS. On the contrary, the fight is perceived as an “American-Israeli project” that allows Israel to continue operating unhindered while other countries in the region fight each other. [8] In other words, it seems that the Turkish public opposes having the Turkish army become a “secondary actor in a play directed by the West.” The aforementioned survey conducted by Metropoll found that 60.6% of the respondents oppose Turkey’s involvement joint military operations being conducted by NATO forces in Syria, while only 22.5% supported the option. Simultaneously, the discourse shows a serious lack of trust between the Turkish public and both state and non-state actors in the region. While the hostility shown towards Israel by 86% of the respondents is unsurprising, it is less understandable why 65% of Turkish citizens also expressed disregard for Brazil, a country which would superficially seem to have neither historical or current issues with Turkey. These statistics show more than mere disrespect for the outside world but rather the xenophobia that has become an inseparable part of the Turkish experience, a feeling well expressed by the well-known Kemalist slogan, “Turks have no friends but the Turks,” even though Kemalism is on the decline.
Notes
[1] For more on this context, see: Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, “ ISIS and the Kurds: Difficult Dilemmas facing Turkey,” Beehive 2, no.9 (October 2014).
[2] Peşmerge Koridor
[3] PEW Research Turkey [Accessed in: November 14, 2014] http://www.pewglobal.org/database/indicator/6/country/224/
[4] “The Turkish people don’t look favorably upon the U.S., or any other country, really”, PEW Research, [Accessed on November 14, 2014] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/31/the-turkish-people-dont-look-favorably-upon-the-u-s-or-any-other-country-really/
[5] TGBdenABDyeÇuval#
[6] “Türkiye’nin Nabzı, Ekim 2014, Savaş ve Barış Arasında Türkiye’nin Dış Politikası”, Metropoll,
[Accessed on November 14, 2014] http://www.metropoll.com.tr/upload/content/files/1774-turkiyenin-nabzi-ekim-sunum.pdf
[7] See: Cohen Yanarocak, “ISIS and the Kurds,” footnote 13 above.
[8] Cem Küçük, “IŞİD bir Amerika ve İsrail Projesi mi?” Yeni Şafak, November 9, 2014 http://m.yenisafak.com/yazarlar/cemkucuk/isid-bir-amerika-ve-israil-proj... [Accessed on: November 16, 2014]