Being Turkish at NYU: Does anyone care about what’s happening?

I didn’t use Facebook much until about two years ago, when the Gezi Park Protests began during the summer of 2013 in my motherland, Turkey. Media coverage was shut down by the government. The only way people found out about the any developments concerning the protests were via Facebook and Twitter.

From May to July 2013, my Facebook timeline was filled with videos showing the tension between the police and the citizens. Civilians from various backgrounds came together and fought for their basic human rights, and the police brutality that marked the protests.

A dove, symbolizing peace, walking where many people lost their lives during the protests in the previous year. May 2014. Thanks to my friend Deniz Yalcin

On October 10, 2015, two suicide bombs went off at a peace rally in Ankara, the deadliest terror attack on Turkish soil. Around 100 died and 250 were injured. People who were at the rally were from all sorts of background, religious and political beliefs, and they were all marching for the same thing: end the armed conflict between the Turkish state and Kurdish militants and stop the killing of innocent people.

Last week, when I found out about the bombing at the capital of Turkey, Ankara, I was in great shock and grief, along with the rest of the Turkish nation.

I didn’t know how to demonstrate my sadness.

What do you do when you find out that innocent civilians in your country aging from 7 to 70 who were marching for peace were bombed? Do you carry on with your usual New York life and not think of your fellow 100 countrymen that were killed in a second and another 250 that were brutally injured?

How do you express that feeling of drowning, sinking and hopelessness? At first, I thought of posting news stories or footages of the bombing on Facebook in order to inform my foreign friends, but then I thought, “For what purpose?” It’s not like being active on Facebook would change anything. We’re told that innocent people die in my country everyday, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

Protesters from all sorts of background fighting for their rights in Gezi Uprisings. May 2013. Thanks to Deniz Yalcin

But why is that? Why do we, as NYU students, not seem to care much about what’s going on in the rest of the world? Don’t we have a reputation for being socially active and politically minded?

Unfortunately it’s not too surprising to see  the recent crisis in Turkey didn’t attract much attention at NYU (apart from the small Turkish community). The area we’re talking about is a region where continuos conflicts have dominated since I have known myself, and I assume this is the case for most NYU students.

Turkish people have lived in peace for many decades, but people tend to generalize the Middle East as a region with lots of political problems and wars concerning oil or religion. Hence, it’s not shocking to observe students put Turkey and the Arab countries in the same basket, even though the problems they face have differences.

Sadly, wars in the Middle East have become such a norm in the twenty-first century that not a lot of students strive to learn about the actual problems  Middle Eastern countries are face. This kind of common misinformation among students is because of the way the U.S. media portrays the Middle East and Muslims.

I don’t think I need to say that Americans aren’t the biggest fan of Muslims. Even I, as a 20-year-old liberal Muslim girl who doesn’t cover herself, still have to say, “But I don’t really practice it. Don’t worry! I’m not a terrorist or anything, haha!”

What can be done at NYU to rightfully inform non-Turkish students about Turkey and the region is to organize more events in which students can openly discuss any questions they might have about the politics or the social life in the region.

Turkish Political Society (TPS), for example, is a student-run club that provides a platform for international debate in order to eliminate barriers and prejudices concerning Turkey and the region. However, it’s NYU students’ duty to show the willingness to attend these sorts of meetings in order to forget about their prejudices and get true insight about the geography from students who lived there.

Mina Soyak, a sophomore in SCPS, says that she found out about the news at 4am on October 10th and couldn’t sleep all day, “I felt so powerless and didn’t know how to help the people in my country. I’ve been telling myself that voting on the upcoming elections in November is the best action I can take right now”.

She also adds that responding to evil with evil is not a solution, “Even though that seems to be the way our world works right now, there has to be another path to solve the issues Turkey is facing”.

Rana Ipeker, a senior in CAS and the co-president of TPS, says that we, as Turkish students, cannot give up hope in our country, “Most Turkish students at NYU had the privilege of growing up with the best opportunities Turkey has to offer. We are here in the States to get the best education we can.

“Thus, we don’t have the luxury of giving up on our country and simply saying, ‘There’s nothing I can do to help Turkey’. Of course there is. Everything we do counts because we’re young, bright minded Turkish people that have the responsibility and the skills to better our country.”

NYU students discussing the attack in Ankara during TPS club meeting. 15 October 2015. Thanks to Mimoza Yasemen

Despite the pessimism and the hopelessness that surrounds the bombing in Ankara, I agree with Rana and other Turkish people that I’ve spoken to at NYU.

I’m not giving up on my beautiful country, my breathtaking city, Istanbul, and my friendly, accepting, and unifying people. Thus, I will do everything that I can to inform foreigners about the messy and bloody political situation in Turkey, in hopes of changing Turkey’s dark future as soon as we can. Call me a dreamer, but I, along with other Turks, still believe that brotherhood, peace and understanding will one day make our world better.