Political tensions between Israel and Turkey–which have been escalating for the past year–have reached a peak, after Israel’s early morning attack on the Freedom Flotilla four days ago. Israeli military boats and helicopters launched the attack in international waters, using firearms against unarmed civilians aboard one of the vessels in order to maintain their naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The activists were attempting to reach Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, including construction materials, medical equipment, school supplies, in addition to various personal gifts.
The main target of the attack, the Mavi Marmara passenger ship, has no military history. For the past 16 years, the ship had been used to transport travelers to the Turkish island of Avşa, until it was purchased three months ago by the İnsani Yardım Vakfı/Humanitarian Aid Foundation, commonly known as the IHH.
Longtime allies Turkey and Israel have lately experienced rising political tensions, especially after a heated debate between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos last year. Although Turkey’s response to the Israeli attack seemed harsh–the Turkish ambassador was recalled and the attack was labeled as “ignominious recklessness”–the military-based alliance between the two countries still remains. Many leftists and anarchists in Turkey refer to their government as a paranoid state, like Israel, with no ethical defense for its actions. They call upon their government to end its alliance with Israel and to halt military operations in Kurdish territories within its borders.
However, such demands do not represent popular opinion in Turkey. Under the powerful influence of Turkish nationalism, two popular conspiracy theories have come to govern the streets, where many protests and demonstrations have been organized against Israel for the past three days
The first links Kurdish armed resistance with Israel and the United States. On the same day as the Israeli attacks, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party), a Kurdish guerrilla group, declared an end to their year-long unilateral ceasefire with the Turkish military, which they announced in April last year. After this declaration, six Turkish soldiers were killed by militants in an attack on a Turkish military base. According to a relatively popular conspiracy theory, these two attacks were connected and serve as proof of a Kurdish-Israeli union, backed by the United States.
The second theory is colored by a mix of nationalist and religious zeal, and uses Islamic idioms and texts to denigrate Jewish people.
Motivated by such sentiments, it is not uncommon to find people in Turkey who use Hitler profile pictures on their facebook and other online accounts. Progressive Turkish movements, which share a common history with Palestinian liberation movements, are in a confrontation with these bigoted ideas while at the same time unequivocally condemning Israel’s recent attacks, its blockade on Gaza and the complacency of Western governments.
Turgut Ercetin is a Turkish composer and activist who is currently doing graduate studies at Stanford University.
