Ankara Bombings

As most of you have probably already heard, the Turkish capital of Ankara suffered a bombing on Saturday that killed many people. It was next to the train station, which I myself passed through a few weeks ago.

I wish I could say that I was surprised when I heard the news, but I wasn’t. I’d been meaning to write a post about the larger political situation in Turkey, and when this happened I thought I would be able to write about it, too. But when I sat down to do it I wasn’t able to get my thoughts down in any coherent way. I was too angry and too sad.

I realized that, although I have strong ideas about who might have orchestrated this attack and what benefits it might have brought them, it will do little for me to voice these thoughts here. The point of this attack was an attempt by somebody to make Turkey a more fearful place. No matter who orchestrated it, it qualifies as terrorism. It was calculated to strike fear into Turkish and Kurdish people, into people who support the current government as well as people who do not support it. It is an attack on free speech and political criticism, and it will serve to further polarize Turkey’s already extremely polarized political discourse as everybody points fingers at one another. It may be the beginning of greater violence than is already occurring in Turkey, although I still hold out a small hope that it’s not.

On November 1, Turkey will hold the second set of parliamentary elections this year. I can only hope that it will elect leaders who will be united for the goal of giving Turkey the peace that Turkish people deserve. Nobody deserves to live in fear, and nobody deserves to have their right to criticize governmental decisions and values be threatened in any way. Nobody deserves to live in a country where some people are considered inferior to others. Nobody deserves to live in a country where hatred is seen as a valid response to anything. And certainly, none of the people killed in the attacks deserved to die.