ayşe düzkan is a feminist activist and writer who refuses to use capital letters in her writing, as “inspired by feminist writers, the language of poetry, and the texts of the raf”. out of respect for the author’s principles, we present her article to our readers as such.
ayşe düzkan
according to the hope foundation, which combats individual armament, persons residing in turkey are in possession of some 34 to 35 million weapons, 30 million of which are unregistered.
in the united states, there is an established vicious cycle of firearms being present in all households over a certain level of income based on “security concerns”, and all those firearms posing a threat to other households.
signs suggest that turkey is on a similar trajectory, in the wake of last week’s events. the spread of individual armament and its encouragement has been a matter of fact for a long time, and we have had long discussions on how that could lead to critical outcomes in times of political chaos.
tolerance towards male violence has come to lead men to be violent towards other men as well, and compounding factors such as desperation born out of the economic crisis now means individual arms have become a great threat to society.
another aspect of spreading gun ownership is that it makes operations easier for enemies of organisations hostile to the people such as the islamic state (isis). in an environment of constant news of violence, their actions can be easily brushed aside. case in point: the attack on the santa maria church in istanbul’s sarıyer district did not garner the attention it. deserved.
we live in a country with ensured deep rooting of animosity against christians and jews. this animosity can easily be moulded and instrumentalised. remember the events of 2006 and 2007, when armenian journalist hrant dink was murdered in istanbul, catholic priest andrea santoro in trabzon, and three missionaries in the zirve publishing house in malatya.
among these people whose only shared characteristic was their christian faith, only dink received the attention he deserved, aided by the fact that he was a renowned journalist involved in the fight for democracy in turkey.
after last week’s attack on the santa maria, another italian church, authorities deduced that the next target was istiklal avenue’s sant antuan, a levantine parish now run by italian catholic priests that draws many non-christians to visit.
a reactivation by isis, especially through attacks against christians and their places of worship in a show of power, could even be a cause for celebration among turkey’s populace poisoned by racism and forced into ignorance to the point of confusing jews with christians and then associating the latter with israel. those who transport shipfuls of aid to israel are safe in this society, while anybody who is not a sunni muslim lives in danger.
we have seen this before: while any and all persons who have the slightest intention to organise a democratic protest get arrested and paroled at best (but sent to prison more often than not), members of isis would need to actually take action to enter the field of interest for security forces. this is evidenced by the ease with which isis members were apprehended in the aftermath. two issues were surprising to me: that some of the 51 suspects were deported, and that another 29 suspects that were planning attacks on churches and synagogues had been arrested in an operation on 29 december but the santa maria attackers were not.
there are many interesting details in this church attack, before which isis members held a meeting in the eastern kayseri province, and had been using the vehicle used in the attack as an unregistered taxi cab.
they were unable to commit as big a massacre as they wished because the gun jammed. the only person who lost his life in the attack was a mentally disabled alevi man, who only attended the mass because he liked the church.
many have condemned the santa maria attack, some of whom were undoubtedly in positions of power to be able to prevent it. furthermore, while there is no doubt that condemnations and declarations of intent are important steps, they also are clearly not preventionary measures. it is also not enough that there are christians in the parliament as representatives.
the santa maria attack is political, because of both the identity of the perpetrators and the shortcomings in the prosecution, as well as the racism it pertains to among society. for these reasons, following up on the case and to insist that the attack is brought to light must be part of our political agenda, as well as actively standing by the ever-dwindling christian community.
*ayşe düzkan is a left-wing feminist activist, writer, translator and journalist who has been involved with turkey’s prominent socialist parties and feminist organisations in various capacities, including founder and editor. she uses lowercase letters only in her writing, a choice she explains as being “inspired by feminist writers, the language of poetry, and the texts of the raf”.
