Turkey slaughters 35 civilians, the world barely notices.

[Willie Pete]

A senior Turkish official has acknowledged that 35 civilians were killed in an air strike near a Kurdish village close to the border with Iraq.

 

Turkey's military said earlier it had targeted suspected Kurdish militants.

 

But the victims of Wednesday night's attack are believed to have been villagers involved in smuggling cigarettes into Turkey from Iraq.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16352388

 

Very little media response to this. No world wide outrage, protests at embassies, marches in London etc.

 

Now exchange 'Turkey' for 'Israel' and what do you think the reaction would have been? wall to wall BBC coverage, political commentators apoplectic with rage, the Guardian producing furiously written articles etc etc.

 

Amazing to see the double standards.

 

9 Turkish Islamic extremists are killed on a boat after attacking soldiers and stabbing them - the world goes into a anti-Israel rage.

 

Turkey slaughters 35 villagers - meh.

[andygardener]

Whereever you have crossboarder terrorist activity as in the turkey/iraq or gaza/egypt situation then there's always the chance that a criminal smuggler gets mistaken for a terrorist. They know the risks when they chose a life of crime.

[quisquose]

People only notice when they can mentally establish which "side" to take. We are all guilty of this to a certain extent.

 

I often ask people who claim to be sympathetic towards the plight of the Palestinians what their thoughts are about the plight of the people of Western Sahara. The Western Sahara conflict seems to be on a par with the conflict in Israel, with severe human rights abuses and the displacement of many tens of thousands of Muslims from their country, but it hardly ever gets noticed.

 

Why?

 

I can only figure that Muslims displacing Muslims fails to generate the same anger that Jews displacing Muslims can, because people are unable to take "sides".

 

As usual, religion poisons everything.

[Willie Pete]

People only notice when they can mentally establish which "side" to take. We are all guilty of this to a certain extent.

 

I often ask people who claim to be sympathetic towards the plight of the Palestinians what their thoughts are about the plight of the people of Western Sahara. The Western Sahara conflict seems to be on a par with the conflict in Israel, with severe human rights abuses and the displacement of many tens of thousands of Muslims from their country, but it hardly ever gets noticed.

 

Why?

 

I can only figure that Muslims displacing Muslims fails to generate the same anger that Jews displacing Muslims can, because people are unable to take "sides".

 

As usual, religion poisons everything.

Interesting point, although I don't agree with your description of Israel or the nature of the conflict with the 'palestinians'.

 

However, I'm not sure this is the complete story. I also wonder how the left wing fit into all of this. They have demonstrated time after time that they care not a jot for any victims unless they're perceived to be victims of Israel or America.

 

We're into about the 5th headline on the BBC news and still no mention of what's happened in Turkey.

 

Whereas if it was Israel, it would have been headline news.

 

One only needs to remember the flotilla incident and the world's reaction.

[Forumosaurus]

Who decides that missile striking one criminal is worse than missile striking another?

[SiSiSi]

People only notice when they can mentally establish which "side" to take. We are all guilty of this to a certain extent.

 

I often ask people who claim to be sympathetic towards the plight of the Palestinians what their thoughts are about the plight of the people of Western Sahara. The Western Sahara conflict seems to be on a par with the conflict in Israel, with severe human rights abuses and the displacement of many tens of thousands of Muslims from their country, but it hardly ever gets noticed.

 

Why?

 

I can only figure that Muslims displacing Muslims fails to generate the same anger that Jews displacing Muslims can, because people are unable to take "sides".

 

As usual, religion poisons everything.

 

Forgive my ignorance. What is happening in Western Sahara? I didn't know that it was a country.

[callippo]

I'm sure you're aware of Israel's seperation barrier, but I bet you never heard of Morrocco's 'Wall of Shame' :

 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/090808/western-saharas-wall-shame

 

RABUNI CAMP, Algeria — It is almost half the size of the Great Wall of China, four times the length of the wall in the West Bank, and 16 times longer than the Berlin Wall ever was, but few have heard of the 1,600-mile-long Moroccan military wall that divides the Western Sahara.

 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/090808/western-saharas-wall-shame

[Frazer1974]

Is it just me who thought this was a Christmas-themed thread, about one of Bernard Matthews' finest Norfolk Bronze going on the rampage?

[Lucifer]

Is it just me who thought this was a Christmas-themed thread, about one of Bernard Matthews' finest Norfolk Bronze going on the rampage?

 

Turkeys gobble up opposition.

[Jim Hardie]

The USA wants Turkey in the EU so the world is prevented from noticing.