Nov. 14, 2015: The day after the bloody terror attacks in Paris. The world is still in shock. You pick up a copy of The Guardian and check out the front page: “French official blames Paris attacks on ISIS [DAESH],” the headline reads. “France launches airstrikes against Arab targets to retaliate.”
Can’t remember reading the story? No worries, it never existed. No such story was ever published. The entire world condemned the terror attacks and reiterated their support for the government and the people of France. There was no doubt that DAESH was responsible for the bloodshed. And no international media outlet dared say that France had attacked Arabs when missiles rained down on DAESH militants.
Let’s try again:
March 14, 2016: The day after a suicide bomber killed 37 innocent people in Ankara. Just hours ago, a terrorist targeted civilians at the heart of the Turkish capital. There was no doubt that the PKK was behind the deadly assault. Enter The Guardian: “Turkish jets attack Kurds as Ankara bomb blamed on PKK.” This is how a major Western newspaper described Turkey’s airstrikes against the PKK position in Northern Iraq.
The next day, the same papers described Anders Behring Breivik, who had killed 77 people and injured 242 civilians in 2011, as “Norway mass killer.” A fascist calling for the cleansing of Muslims and Turks, Breivik once claimed to be a top commander of the Knights Templar Europe. A racist man promoting what he thought to be Christian values. Initially, the media referred to Breivik as a madman instead of a terrorist – which is what you call people if they kill dozens of innocent civilians to make a point. Over the years, he had apparently earned the title “Norway mass killer.” A man who will be free in 15 short years.
The Western media’s coverage of the terror attack in Turkey wasn’t just hypocritical. It was evil and shameless. Four days before a PKK member blew herself up in Ankara, The Times interviewed a top commander of an armed organization globally recognized as a terrorist group. Would the same paper have proudly printed free advertising for a high-ranking DAESH member? Just hours after the suicide attack, Al Jazeera English joined the chorus to publish an article by a self-proclaimed expert claiming Turkey was “a failing state.”
Certain papers printed in Turkey haven’t fared much better either. Cumhuriyet, whose headline about the Paris attacks was “France cries for its children,” had described Turkey as “a country of massacres” following the suicide attack in Sultanahmet. On Monday, the paper came up with another non-statement: “Bloody Sunday.”
Differences of opinion are a fact of life. Humanity, however, should be able to form a united front in the face of the senseless killing of 37 innocent people. In the wake of the suicide attack in Ankara, the international media and their Turkish sweethearts failed to meet not only professional standards but also an elementary level of decency.
[Daily Sabah, March 18, 2016]
