'So Be It! After All, They Are Human Too!' (II)

To understand why Turks have a negative image among foreigners and the discriminatory rhetoric directed against them, we need to go back a few centuries.

With the Turks making Anatolia their homeland following the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Europeans began to perceive Turks as enemies. They encountered Turks during the military campaigns of the Crusades, which were launched to conquer and colonize regions of the Middle East.

The image of the "Terrible Turk" emerged significantly in Europe after Fatih Sultan Mehmed conquered Constantinople in 1453 following a siege that lasted 1 month, 3 weeks, and 2 days.

Over time, the fear that Turks instilled in Europeans also led to the emergence of a secret admiration for Turks among Europeans.

Following the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, Europeans turned to seeking the answer to the question, "Who are the Turks?"

It was during this period that the first depictions of Turks emerged, featuring clichés from which they have not been able to escape to this day (barbaric, dirty, cruel, corrupt, arrogant, robber, warrior). After the First World War, the West added the word "genocide" to the already negative image of the Turks.

Suleiman the Magnificent's efforts to bring the islands in the Aegean Sea under control—with the exception of Crete—as well as his incorporation of Belgrade into the Ottoman Empire and his arrival at the gates of Vienna, further increased anxiety and fear among Europeans.

Many considered the Ottoman advance to be divine punishment for the sins of Christians.

The military campaigns the Ottomans conducted in Europe led to the formation of the "barbaric" image, as many historical sources describe the Ottomans in this way.

For centuries, Western countries have held a less-than-positive view of Turks because, throughout history, Turks have stood in the way of Westerners achieving their political, commercial, cultural, and religious goals.

The Ottomans controlled global maritime trade, important ports, and a key strategic region in the Middle East. For this reason, Turks were labeled with epithets that everyone feared, such as "barbarians," "God's punishment," or "Europe's common enemy."

It is almost impossible to find a positive description of the Ottoman Empire in Romanian and Moldovan history and literature books.

Literary works depict Ottoman sultans as arrogant, haughty, barbaric, ruthless, etc. However, it should not be forgotten that the first contact between Romanians and Ottomans took place under wartime conditions, where one side was the aggressor and the other was the victim.

In his 18th-century work "Turks, Muslims, and Others," the French writer Voltaire described Turks in more moderate terms, contrary to the harsh criticisms of the Ottomans in the Middle Ages.

He states, "The Turks are free and independent. There is no class distinction among them. Only those who hold office in the state can have a rank. Their character is both harsh and stubborn, as well as gentle and patient. They have taken their ferocity from the Scythians and their gentleness from Greece and Asia. They are very proud," but Voltaire also adds: "Because they are conquerors and ignorant, they look down on all nations."

In the period after the Second World War, the image of Turks as a conservative and religious people was strengthened as a result of the first generation of Turkish workers (mostly blue-collar) moving to Germany.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the world began to get to know Turkey from a different perspective thanks to Turkish TV series, which are a very effective soft power tool. Thanks to these series, foreigners, especially those from the Balkans, developed a special interest in the Turkish language, Turkish food, and traditions.

However, since 2013, Turkey has lost a lot in terms of image; an image of a country with an increasingly authoritarian and conservative system has formed in the West. Today, Turkey is seen as a country where the gap between the poor and the rich has widened significantly in recent years, and where reforms in the education system are not even approved by a segment of the public.

Although Turkey is constantly criticized by European countries at this point, there are many countries on the African continent where Turkey possesses unique image capital. Based on my own experience, I can say that for students from African or Asian countries, Istanbul is a kind of Paris or London for Turkish or Southeastern European students. There are those in Latin American, Asian, and African countries who feel a special sympathy for Turkey.

Islamophobic and racist rhetoric targeting the Turkish people is spreading across the world with the help of the media.

In an interview with the BBC in 1991, the world-famous Turkish artist Barış Manço said: "To the Easterners, we are Westerners; to the Westerners, we are Easterners."

After Turkey's Cyprus Peace Operation in 1974, the labels "barbarians" and "invaders" returned to the international public agenda.

There have been and still are efforts to improve the Turkish image. However, political factors make all these efforts difficult. Turks feel that they are not liked abroad (especially on the European continent), and therefore they say: "If they don't like us, we don't like them either." This situation further increases nationalist sentiments, which are already very strong in Turkey.