Let me begin with a confession. As a child, I believed genius in its crudest form was the single most important ingredient to impact change. Twenty years through the messy strings of life and I have come to believe that I was wrong – that genius alone is not enough.
Genius of those responsible to vend the great ideals of liberty, equality and social justice but having forgotten the very basic sense of humanity.
In the early hours of February 6, a bedevilling earthquake struck Türkiye at its border with Northern Syria. The death toll has reached 33,000 with many still stuck under the rubble as I write this piece. Many have claimed it to be Türkiye’s “Biggest Disaster In The Last Century.”
The initial reception of the calamity was, as is for most, met with condolences and ‘desires’ to be of assistance in whatever way possible. But some used incendiary rhetoric to impotently try and mock the Türkiye-Syria earthquake, the French magazine: Charlie Hebdo, for one. However, I won’t remit this piece to discount the cartoon for what it’s worth: the likes of which have been quintessentially infamous for their unparalleled displays of notoriety. Not worth my words, or your time.
Political conflicts carry the weight that’s borne utterly and entirely by the very apolitical base that these sanctions try to protect.
But what I would rather try and do is unwind the mystique surrounding the ‘desire’ for assistance for each of these countries.
Sanctions were placed on the Syrian Arab Republic by the US and other major concerned stakeholders to emasculate the despotic rule of Bashar Al Assad in 2011. This was done in the larger interest of the Syrian people to limit the regime’s influence and create space for a more democratic, peaceful and inclusive society. While such carefully placed aspirations at the forefront of an even more cosseted plan would resonate well with a person belonging to any creed, the effects can be – and have been – debated across the board.
But you might ask, what has this got to do with the recent earthquake? And I will tell you: everything.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in fundraisers have been frozen in the US under the “Sanctions Act” depriving those with no stake in politics or policy of everything.
Such political conflicts carry the weight that’s borne utterly and entirely by the very apolitical base that these sanctions try to protect. At times even those who actively dissociate with what their governments stand for. And Syria does not stand to be an aberration. Numerous humanitarian crises have worsened at the hands of an intransigent west luridly buttressed with the treatises of those with genius – and genius only.
Unlike Syria, Türkiye’s case is mind-numbingly linear: international actors leveraging position to forward self-serving political aims. Türkiye is one of the thirty members of NATO, and in theory, stands to be a potential member of the European Union one day. In recent years, the chasm between Türkiye foreign policy and NATO has increased, primarily, on the matter of accession for Sweden and Finland into NATO, among other things – conflict with fellow NATO countries e.g., Greece.
While Turkiye showed signs of support for Sweden and Finland’s bid to join NATO, earlier this year, Erdogan revised that Türkiye may accept Finland into NATO without Sweden. To what the West perceives as Erdogan’s blatant attempt of ‘blackmailing’ to brash its position as a “neo-Ottoman shtick” – in the pretext of the upcoming elections – is a matter of mere policy.
Sweden refuses to extradite suspected Kurdish fighters who have played a seminal role in the facilitation of Kurdish militant groups and people that Türkiye believes were at the forefront of the coup staged against President Erdogan in 2016. The recent “Quran-burning” incident near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm further coloured its foreign policy towards Sweden – where Türkiye insisted that Sweden was complicit in the incident.
But even if Türkiye is actively pursuing other ulterior foreign policy motives – balancing out Russia with the EU – under the guise of the aforementioned reasons, it can’t be any country’s prerogative to goad another country into policy statements that align with theirs.
However, here things change. The recent earthquake shall serve as the perfect pretext for the emboldened West to slink in their policy objectives retrofitted with ‘humanitarian aid’ towards an already enfeebled Türkiye. One where they might succeed – owing to the genius, once again.
While this all might come across as ‘normal’ or the usual: how things are navigated in the power corridors. It should not be.
Not when those affected are bludgeoned into a conflict far beyond their reach or reason. Not when a three-year-old child can’t be rescued from under the rubble because his government is despotic, kleptocratic and recalcitrant. Not when families await death by the lochs, disillusioned of any assistance that the West ‘desires’ to provide, because their government’s foreign policy doesn’t align. Probably time to get a little dumber and more kinder – even if it really is “genius” after all.
The writer is a Law Student at the London School of Economics and Political Science.