Before the 1960s, Turkey had a relatively low rate of emigration. However, after the adoption of a
new constitution in 1961, Turkish citizens began to migrate elsewhere. Gradually, Turks became a "prominent ethnic minority group" in some Western countries. But from the beginning, they were subject to discrimination. At times, when host countries adopted more immigrant-friendly policies, "only the Turkish workers were excluded" from them. In various European languages, the word "Turk" has acquired a meaning similar to "
barbarian" or "heathen", or is used as a slur or curse. As a result, the word also has some negative connotations in the
United States.
Arab World The
Arab World has a long history of mixed relations with the Turks back from the
Ottoman Empire. In the past, the Ottoman conquest had absorbed a large number of Arab countries into its map, ultimately opened a chapter of a complicated relationship between Turks and Arabs. While both are Muslim majority, subsequent conflict of interests and the growing
Turkification and
nationalist movement had led to growing
anti-Arabism among Turks, especially following the
Arab Revolt during the
First World War.
Iraq The fear of Turkish influence has always dominated Iraq and as such, relationship between Iraq and Turkey has always been tense. The position of the Iraqi Turkmen has changed from being administrative and business classes of the
Ottoman Empire to an increasingly discriminated against minority. Since the demise of the Ottoman Empire, the Iraqi Turkmen have been victims of several massacres, such as the
Kirkuk Massacre of 1959. Furthermore, under the
Ba'ath Party, the
persecution of Iraqi Turkmen increased, with several leaders being executed in 1979 Thus, they have suffered from various degrees of suppression and assimilation that ranged from political persecution and exile to terror and
ethnic cleansing. Despite being recognized in the 1925 constitution as a constitutive entity, the Iraqi Turkmen were later denied this status; hence, cultural rights were gradually taken away and activists were sent to exile. The Iraqi Turkmen living in the region of
Kirkuk were perceived as posing a threat to the stability of Iraq, particularly as they did not support the ascendancy of
King Faisal I to the Iraqi throne.
The Kirkuk massacre of 1959 came about due to the Iraqi government allowing the
Iraqi Communist Party, which in Kirkuk was largely Kurdish, to target the Iraqi Turkmen. With the appointment of Maarouf Barzinji, a Kurd, as the mayor of Kirkuk in July 1959, tensions rose following the 14 July revolution celebrations, with animosity in the city polarizing rapidly between the Kurds and Iraqi Turkmen. On 14 July 1959, fights broke out between the Iraqi Turkmen and Kurds, leaving some 20 Iraqi Turkmen dead. Furthermore, on 15 July 1959, Kurdish soldiers of the Fourth Brigade of the Iraqi army mortared Iraqi Turkmen residential areas, destroying 120 houses. Order was restored on 17 July by military units from
Baghdad. The Iraqi government referred to the incident as a "massacre" and stated that between 31 and 79 Iraqi Turkmen were killed and some 130 injured. Furthermore, Iraqi Turkmen villages and towns were destroyed to make way for Arab migrants, who were promised free land and financial incentives. For example, the Ba'ath regime recognized that the city of
Kirkuk was historically an Iraqi Arab city and remained firmly in its cultural orientation. In addition, on 30 October 1981, the Revolution's Command Council issued decree 1391, which authorized the deportation of Iraqi Turkmen from Kirkuk with paragraph 13 noting that "this directive is specially aimed at Turkmen and Kurdish officials and workers who are living in Kirkuk". Thus,
ethnic cleansing was an element of the Ba'thist policy aimed at reducing the influence of the Iraqi Turkmen in northern Iraq's Kirkuk. Those Iraqi Turkmen who remained in cities such as Kirkuk were subject to continued assimilation policies; : Kerkük'ü hiçbir güç Kürtleştiremez ("No power can Kurdify Kirkuk"). The Kurds claimed
de facto sovereignty over land that Iraqi Turkmen regards as theirs. For the Iraqi Turkmen, their identity is deeply inculcated as the rightful inheritors of the region as a legacy of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, it is claimed that the
Kurdistan Region and Iraqi government has constituted a threat to the survival of the Iraqi Turkmen through strategies aimed at eradicating or assimilating them. According to Anderson and Stansfield, in the 1990s, tension between the Kurds and Iraqi Turkmen inflamed as the KDP and the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) were institutionalized as the political hegemons of the region and, from the perspective of the Iraqi Turkmen, sought to marginalize them from the positions of authority and to subsume their culture with an all-pervading Kurdistani identity. With the support of
Ankara, a new political front of Turkmen parties, the
Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF), was formed on 24 April 1995. Promoted by the KDP as the "true voice" of the Iraqi Turkmen, the Turkmen National Association has a pro-Kurdistani stance and has effectively weakened the ITF as the sole representative voice of the Iraqi Turkmen. According to United Nations reports, the KRG and
Peshmerga were "illegally policing Kirkurk, abducting Turkmen and Arabs and subjecting them to torture". In Tal Afar, between 2003 and 2006, 1,350 Turkmens died and thousands of houses were damaged or demolished, resulting in 4,685 displaced families, largely stemming from sectarian tensions. Later, the
Islamic State committed the
Iraqi Turkmen genocide. In 2020, over 15 Turkish nationals have been taken into custody for the same reason. Haftar had also ordered shooting down any Turkish ships and interests, banning flights to Turkey.
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia has a very tense relationship with Turkey, owing it to
Ottoman-Saudi War when the Saudis were defeated by the Ottomans, which contributed to the Turkish rule for another century before the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and its alliance with the
Al-Rashid family against the
Al-Saud. The tensions rekindled in the 21st century with Erdoğan's desire to "revive the Ottoman Empire", which draws Saudi Arabia to be more antagonistic to Turkey. Saudi Arabia has since then made numerous policies, such as labeling the Ottoman Empire as the occupants of Arabia, financing movies that are deemed anti-Turkish, and recently, banning Turkish websites and leading boycotts against Turkey.
Syria From the
French mandate era to the Assad regime, the Turkish culture and language have perished for a section of the
Syrian Turkmen community. Many Syrian Turkmen have become Arabized and assimilated in areas where they form a minority. Consequently, Arabization is mainly an exception in areas where the Syrian Turkmen live in areas where they form a significant population, where they have continued to maintain their Turkish identity and language despite discriminative state policies. For the Syrians, the annexation of Alexandretta became a national wound and a symbol of increasing Turkish meddling of Syrian affairs. This had led to the beginning of anti-Turkish discrimination, intensified under the government of Hafez al-Assad and the Arabization process. Syrian Turkmen, suffered discrimination over employment and education and were forbidden from writing and publishing in their native Turkish dialect. Syrian Turkmen occupied a low rung on the societal ladder, as reported by
Al Bawaba, it was stated that Assad always sought to benefit his politically dominant Shiite religious minority. The report quoted
Bayırbucak Turkmen as highlighting, "They would take Alawites first no matter what, even if they had degrees, Turkmen couldn't find jobs". With the beginning of the
Syrian Civil War, Syrian Turkmen had sided with the
Syrian opposition, which fed the growth of anti-Turkism in Syria. The
Syrian Armed Forces, with Russian support, often bombed Syrian Turkmen positions as well as increased xenophobic attacks against Turkmen, accusing them of being Ankara's stooge.
United Arab Emirates In December 2017, the UAE's foreign minister,
Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, shared a tweet that claimed an Ottoman general had robbed
Medina during Ottoman rule. Emirati diplomat
Anwar Gargash then added, "The sectarian and partisan view is not an acceptable alternative, and the Arab world will not be led by Tehran or Ankara."
Kurds A 2013 study showed that 13.2% of the
Kurds in Turkey had a negative view of Turks. Other numbers include 22.3% who would not accept a Turkish son/daughter-in-law and 5% who would not want to live next to a Turk. The study also showed that left-oriented Kurds were less likely to show tolerance towards Turks, while religious affiliation did not play any significance.
Europe According to
Fatma Müge Göçek the main reasons for anti-Turkish sentiment in Western Europe are
Armenian genocide denial and the role of Turkish migrant workers in the economy.
Albania In the
People's Socialist Republic of Albania,
Islamic culture and life was destroyed through state policies and a group of Albanian historians, often with
nationalist perspectives promoted in their literature "the Turkish savagery" and Albanian Christian resistance toward the Ottoman Empire. Scholars who opposed anti-Turkish and anti-Muslim narratives were subjected to ostracism and penalties. In the 2010s, opposition to Turkey building mosques in Albania or exerting its political influence exists among part of the population. They view Turkey as an interfering or autocratic power and Islam as a negative imposed Ottoman legacy.
Bulgaria district coming into
Shumen (1877). (1877). A painting from the
April Uprising, it sparked outrage in the West against
Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria. Before 1878, Turks accounted for an estimated one-third of the population of Bulgaria. In 1876, approximately 70% of the country's
arable land belonged to Turks. This number declined from 1923 to 1949, when an estimated 220,000 Turks moved from Bulgaria to Turkey, a migration encouraged by the Turkish government.
Another wave of about 155,000 left Bulgaria from 1949 to 1951, many of them forcibly expelled. In 1984, the government implemented
Bulgarisation policies to culturally assimilate Bulgarian Turks. Approximately 800,000 Turks were forced to adopt Bulgarian names. Furthermore, Bulgarian Turks were not allowed to use their Muslim names, speak
Turkish in public places, or attend Muslim ceremonies. This assimilation campaign was labelled as an attempt for
national revival and was called "The Revival Process". On 24 December 1984, in the village of
Mlechino, Bulgarian police and security forces shot at Turkish protesters when some 200 Turkish villagers from nearby smaller towns gathered to protest for the return of their passports and reinstatement of their Turkish names. In many Turkish populated areas in Bulgaria, People from smaller towns and villages attempted to gather in larger towns with a government official with greater jurisdiction, to protest against the assimilation policies. These towns were often barricaded by Bulgarian security forces. On 25 December 1984, close to the town of
Benkovski, some 3,000 Turkish protesters from the nearby smaller villages confronted Bulgarian security forces and demanded to have their original identification papers back. The Bulgarian security forces managed to disperse the crowd and urged them to go back to their villages and inquire from the local mayors. After returning to their towns and discovering that the local municipality didn't have their passports and ID documentation the crowd marched back towards the town of Benkovski on the next day (26 December 1984). About 500 armed personnel from Bulgarian security forces were in position. The police presence in the area was previously increased under the guise of "exercise manoeuvres". When the crowd of 2,000 Turkish villagers approached the Bulgarian security forces opened fire with automatic weapons, wounding 8 people and killing 4. One of the killed was a 17-month-old Turkish baby. The victims were from the villages of
Kayaloba,
Kitna and Mogiljane. The
gunshot wounds suggest that the security force had been aiming at the midsection of the bodies. The captured demonstrators were faced down on the snow for 2 hours and blasted with cold water coming from the fire fighting trucks. In a report by Atanas Kadirev the head of the Ministry of Interior Forces in
Kardzhali stated ''"It was interesting how they endured the entire water from the fire fighters' cisterns''". The temperature that day was minus 15 degrees Celsius. On the same day, 26 December 1984, in the village of
Gruevo, situated in
Momchilgrad county, the Turkish community temporarily resisted the entry of security forces vehicles into the village by burning truck tires on the main road, but the security forces returned at night with reinforcements. The electricity to the village was cut. The villagers organized at the village entrance but were blasted with water from
fire trucks. The security forces opened fire at the villagers and several civilians were wounded and killed. The wounded were refused medical treatment. There are reports of incarcerated Turks allegedly committing suicide while held for police questioning. In demonstrations in Momchilgrad at least one 16-year-old was shot and killed and there are reports of casualties also in
Dzhebel. The
Bulgarian Ministry of Interior stated "during these few Christmas days there have been some 11 demonstrations in which approximately 11,000 Turks participated." A large number of the arrested protesters were later sent to the
Belene labour camp at the gates of which it is written "''All Bulgarian citizens are equal under the laws of the People's Republic of Bulgaria"'' Over 30 people are reported killed during the events in Yablanovo. These events led to the beginning of the revival of the Turkish minority identity in Bulgaria and protests took place in some of the bigger settlements in the southern and northern Turk enclaves. Moreover, the Turkish community received the solidarity of Bulgarian intellectuals and opponents of the regime. Eventually, more than 150,000 Turks returned to Bulgaria—especially after the removal of
Todor Zhivkov from power—but more than 200,000 chose to remain in Turkey permanently. Former Bulgarian prime minister,
Boyko Borisov, has been accused of having anti-Turkish tendencies. In December 2009, he backed a referendum, proposed by the nationalist party
Attack (
Bulgarian: Атака), on whether to allow daily Turkish-language news broadcasts on
Bulgarian National Television, although he later withdrew his support. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, then the Turkish prime minister, "expressed his concern of rising anti-Turkish sentiments in Bulgaria" to the Bulgarian prime minister. The
Turkish Foreign Ministry also "expressed its concern over the rising heated rhetoric in Bulgaria". According to a report by Ivan Dikov, "not just Атака but a large number of Bulgarians have resented the news in Turkish". The vice president of the
Party of European Socialists,
Jan Marinus Wiersma, said Borisov had "crossed the invisible line between right wing populism and extremism". Some Bulgarian historians consider
Bulgars, a semi-nomadic Turkic people, as Iranian. According to
Raymond Detrez,
the Iranian theory is rooted in the periods of anti-Turkish sentiment in Bulgaria and is ideologically motivated. Since 1989, anti-Turkish rhetoric is now reflected in the theories that challenge the thesis of the proto-Bulgars' Turkic origin. Alongside the Iranian or Aryan theory, there appeared arguments favoring an autochthonous origin. Example for recent confrontation between the Turkish population of Bulgaria and Bulgarian politicians is
Banya Bashi Mosque clashes Belgium There are approximately 290,000
Turkish citizens living in Belgium, The majority of whom left to Belgium in the 1950s. In the past several years, many right and left wings Belgian political parties criticized domestic Turkish politics and called for banning or deporting Turkish immigrants. In 2015, a female employee shouted "
Dirty Turk" (''in
Dutch: 'Vuile Turk')'' at a Supervisor of Turkish origin in the
Volvo car factory in Ghent, which led to a
Strike action by Turkish workers at the factory.
Filip Dewinter a right-wing Flemish
nationalist party member said in May 2017 at
TV-program De Zevende Dag,
Cyprus The island of
Cyprus became an independent state in 1960, with power shared between
Greek Cypriots and
Turkish Cypriots under the
London–Zürich Agreements. But in December 1963, in events that became known as
Bloody Christmas in which 364 Turks were killed, Turkish Cypriots were ousted from the republic and Greek Cypriots began a military campaign against them, leading to 11 years of ethnic clashes. Turkish Cypriots bore the heavier cost in terms of casualties, and some 25,000—about a fifth of the population of Turkish Cypriots—were
internally displaced. Thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses left behind were ransacked or completely destroyed. They lived as refugees for at least ten years, until the 1974 Turkish invasion. This resulted in an exodus of Turkish Cypriots, with the majority migrating to the
United Kingdom and others to Turkey,
North America, and
Australia. On 13 February 1963 Greeks and Greek Cypriots attacked the Turkish Cypriot quarter of
Limassol with tanks killing 16 and injuring 35 Turks. Between 11 and 13 May 1964, Cypriot Police executed much as 28 Turkish Cypriot civilians in
Famagusta and
Akrotiri and Dhekelia. On 14 and 15 November 1967, Greek Cypriots murdered 26 Turkish Cypriots during their retreat from
Kofinou. Numerous atrocities against the Turkish Cypriot community were committed in response to the
Turkish invasion of Cyprus. In the
Maratha, Santalaris and Aloda massacre by EOKA B, 126 people were killed on 14 August 1974. The
United Nations described the massacre as a
crime against humanity, by saying "constituting a further crime against humanity committed by the Greek and Greek Cypriot gunmen." In the
Tochni massacre, 85 Turkish Cypriot inhabitants were massacred. During the
Alaminos massacre, 13 or 15 Turkish men were executed.
The Washington Post covered another atrocity in which it is written that: "In a Greek raid on a small Turkish village near Limassol, 36 people out of a population of 200 were killed. The Greeks said that they had been given orders to kill the inhabitants of the Turkish villages before the Turkish forces arrived." In Limassol, upon the fall of the Turkish Cypriot enclave to the Cypriot National Guard on 20 July 1974, the Turkish Cypriot quarter was burned, women raped and children shot according to Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot eyewitness accounts. 1300 people were then led to a prison camp. On 12 July 2020, The primate of the Church of Cyprus,
Archbishop Chrysostomos II has expressed his opinions regarding the reversion of the
Hagia Sophia museum to a mosque stating that "The Turks have remained uncivilized, they are rude, and they will remain [this way]." He added that "Turkey has learned to destroy, it has learned to appropriate the cultures of others and sometimes, when it does not benefit it, it destroys them and falsely presents cultures as its own."
France Germany , in which
neo-Nazis set fire to a Turkish family's home, was one of the most severe instances of
xenophobic violence in modern Germany. Turks are "the most prominent ethnic minority group in contemporary Germany", and discrimination and violence against them are common. In public discourse and popular jokes, they are often portrayed as "ludicrously different in their food tastes, dress, names, and even in their ability to develop survival techniques". The number of violent acts by
right-wing extremists in Germany increased dramatically between 1990 and 1992. On November 25, 1992, three Turkish residents were killed in a
firebombing in
Mölln, a town in northern Germany. And on May 29, 1993, in an
arson attack in Solingen, five members of a Turkish family that had resided in Germany for 23 years were burnt to death. Several neighbors heard someone shout "
Heil Hitler!" before dousing the front porch and door with gasoline and setting fire to the home. Most Germans condemned these attacks, and many marched in candlelight processions. According to Greg Nees, "because Turks are both darker-skinned and Muslim, conservative Germans are largely against granting them citizenship".
Greece A member of the European parliament from the Greek far-right
Golden Dawn party, former army lieutenant general
Eleftherios Synadinos has been expelled from a European Parliament plenary session after a racist remark, stating that "As it has been expressed in scientific literature, the Turks are dirty and polluted. Turks are like wild dogs when they play but when they have to fight against their enemies they run away. The only effective way to deal with the Turks is with decisive and resolute attitudes."
Ioannis Lagos, who has been a Greek lawmaker serving as a Member of the
European Parliament, has tore a Turkish flag made of paper into pieces in January 2020 during a session of debate for the humanitarian situation on the Greek islands due to illegal immigrations. The former Greek
Minister for Foreign Affairs Theodoros Pangalos stated in 2002 that Turks have been being allowed "to drag their bloodstained boots across the carpet" in the
European Union capitals and has labelled Turks as "bandits, murderers, and rapists".
Netherlands Turks are the largest ethnic minority group in the Netherlands. The first recorded attack on Turks in the Netherlands were the
Afrikaanderwijk riots. Although policies toward Turks in the Netherlands are more progressive than those in many other European countries, such as Germany, in a report on the Netherlands in 2008, the
European Commission against Racism and Intolerance wrote that the Turkish minority had been particularly affected by "stigmatization of and discrimination against members of minority groups". The report also noted that "the tone of Dutch political and public debate around integration and other issues relevant to ethnic minorities has experienced a dramatic deterioration". The network also noted "dramatic growth" of
Islamophobia. In 2001, another international organization, the
European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, highlighted a negative trend in Dutch attitudes towards minorities, compared with average
European Union results. That analysis also noted that, compared to other Europeans, the Dutch were "more in favor of cultural assimilation of minorities" rather than "cultural enrichment by minority groups".
Malta The
Maltese have a colourful vocabulary stemming from their fight against the Ottoman Empire during the
Great Siege of Malta in 1565. For example, the expression
tgħammed tork is used when the sun is visible during rainfall; it means "a Turk has been baptised", which was considered a rare event. The phrase
twieled tork ("a Turk was born") is also used. Another expression is
ħaqq għat-torok ("curse on the Turks"), used when something goes wrong.
Former Soviet Union Armenia According to a survey conducted in 2007, 78% of
Armenians see Turkey as a threat.
Georgia Georgians look with a wary eye to Turkey's growing
Neo-Ottomanism and the rise in popularity of
irredentist maps showing Turkey with borders expanded into the former
Ottoman Empire, usually including
Adjara. Although some Turks have since come back to Meskheti (which is near the Turkish-Georgian border), the Georgians and Armenians who settled in their homes have vowed to take up arms against any who return. Many Georgians have also argued that the
Meskhetian Turks should be sent to Turkey,
"where they belong".
Russia Russian
propaganda poster depicting a Turk running away from a Russian According to
Stanford University history professor Robert D. Crews, Russia has been historically more tolerant towards Turkic people than any other European administrations, and many Turkic people (
Volga Tatars,
Bashkirs,
Karachays,
Nogais,
Kazakhs,
Chuvash, for example), most of them Muslims, were fairly treated under
Tsarist Russia. However, not all Turkic peoples received such generous treatment, for instance,
Crimean Tatars under Russian Tsarist administration were forced to leave their houses for Turkey due to Russian colonial politics in the
Crimean peninsula. In the
Soviet Union, the
NKVD and the
Red Army carried out
ethnic cleansing during World War II through
mass deportations of Turks. In June 1945,
Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet minister of foreign affairs, formally demanded that Turkey surrender three provinces (
Kars,
Ardahan, and
Artvin), and Moscow was also preparing to support Armenian claims to several other provinces. War against Turkey seemed possible, and
Joseph Stalin wanted to drive out Turks (especially in
Meskheti) who were likely to be hostile to Soviet intentions. The campaign is relatively poorly documented, but Soviet sources suggest that 115,000 Turks were deported, mainly to
Central Asia. Most of them settled in
Uzbekistan, but many others died along the way. More recently, some Turks in Russia, especially Meskhetian Turks in
Krasnodar, have faced human rights violations, including deprivation of citizenship and prohibitions on employment and owning property. Since 2004, many Turks have left the Krasnodar region for the United States as refugees. They are still barred from full repatriation to Georgia.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky claimed that "nothing will happen to the world even if the entire Turkic nation perishes".
Uzbekistan While Turkey and
Uzbekistan have a fair relationship for being commonly
Turkic, some tensions were witnessed due to differences in history, as Turks are of Oghuz origin while Uzbeks are of
Karluk branch. In 1989, 103 people died and more than 1,000 were wounded in ethnic clashes between Turks and
Uzbeks. Some 700 houses were destroyed, and more than 90,000 Meskhetian Turks were driven out of Uzbekistan. Many Turks see these events as their "second deportation". Those who remained in Uzbekistan complained of ethnic discrimination.
Former Yugoslavia in the
Church of the Ascension of Jesus, Skopje from 1867,
North Macedonia. The
Beheading of John the Baptist is carried out by figures stylized like Ottoman Turks. After the
Ottoman Empire fell in the early 20th century, many Turks fled as
Muhacirs (refugees). Others intermarried or simply identified themselves as
Yugoslavs or
Albanians to avoid stigma and persecution. Historically, from the Ottoman conquest through the 19th century, many ethnically non-Turkish groups—especially the Muslim Slavs of the
Balkans—were referred to in local languages as
Turks. This usage is common in literature, including in the works of
Ivan Mažuranić and
Petar II Petrović-Njegoš. The religious ideology of
Christoslavism, coined by
Michael Sells, holds that "
Slavs are
Christian by nature and that any conversion from Christianity is a betrayal of the Slavic race". Under this ideology, as seen in
Croatian and
Serbian nationalism, South Slavic Muslims are not regarded as part of their ethnic kin; by virtue of their
Muslim faith, they become "Turks".
North Macedonia When North Macedonia
proclaimed its independence in 1991, the Macedonian state implemented
nationalist politics, which aimed to assimilate
Macedonian Muslims into a broader category of "
Macedonians". The government banned education in
Turkish in all regions to "prevent
Turkification". This, however, was met with resistance by Muslims who did not support the association and wanted to learn Turkish and continue their education in Turkish. The protests failed, although one person applied to the
European Court of Human Rights. The case revolved around rights to education in the mother tongue.
Serbia During the
Great Eastern Crisis more than
10,000 Muslims, including Turks, were forced to left the territory of the
Serbian Principality in 1862.
Bosnian War Ratko Mladić,
Radovan Karadžić's military chief and fellow convicted criminal of
genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, described the conquest of Srebrenica and the
ensuing massacre as an opportunity for "the
Serbs to avenge themselves on the Turks". On July 11, 1995, the town of
Srebrenica fell to the
Bosnian Serb Army. Its commander Ratko Mladić made his infamous statement at the same day, which has been used against him during
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, while he and his entourage posing for cameras with the town in the background:
Turkish-on-Turkish prejudice and discrimination A medium documented prejudice and hostility (and counter hostility) between the so-called
White Turks and so-called
Black Turks has long existed in Turkish society ever since the founding of the Turkish state in 1923. However these tensions escalated in the 1990s when the religious rural class began to appear in the urban centers and show a different image of the so-called "secular country." The Europeanized urban class termed the influx of the religious rural class as an "invasion." These reports had reinforced a sense of solidarity to Armenians and increasingly anti-Turkish rhetorics in the United States, with the Turks being equally seen as a barbaric people.
Israel As a result of the increasing
Anti-Zionist and antisemitic sentiment by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and growing Israeli assertiveness, in particular toward the issue over the
Armenian genocide,
Turkish-Israeli relations have been greatly damaged. However, Israelis have generally reserved criticism for only the Turkish government, partly due to their
tie with fellow Turkic Azerbaijan. After the
2010 Gaza flotilla raid, where 10 Turks were killed, and the subsequent diplomatic crisis between Israel and Turkey, the number of Israeli tourists to Turkey shrunk to 100,000 as Israelis preferred to "refrain from visiting the country that was seen to be hostile to them". In 2019,
Benjamin Netanyahu's son,
Yair Netanyahu, published a tweet remarking that
Istanbul was once called
Constantinople, a centre of
Orthodox Christianity before "Turkish occupation" of the city, sparking a political crisis between Turkey and Israel. On 12 July 2020, a group of nine Israelis made up of Christians and Jews burned the Turkish flag at the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv in response to Erdoğan's decision to convert
Hagia Sophia back into a mosque. They were later detained by Israeli police. On 10 February 2023, Israeli top rabbi
Shmuel Eliyahu claimed that the earthquake that devastated Turkey was "a divine punishment" because the Turkish government had "defamed" Israel.
New Zealand The guns and
magazines used by Brenton Tarrant, the perpetrator of the
Christchurch mosque shootings, were covered in white writing naming historical events, people, and motifs related to historical conflicts, wars, and battles between Muslims and European Christians, as well as the names of recent Islamic terrorist attack victims and the names of far-right attackers. Notable references from Ottoman history included
Skanderbeg (an Albanian nobleman who led an uprising against the Ottoman Empire),
Antonio Bragadin (a
Venetian officer who broke an agreement and killed Turkish captives), 1683 (which is the date of the
Second Siege of Vienna),
Miloš Obilić (who is said to have killed the Ottoman Emperor
Murat I in
Battle of Kosovo in 1389),
János Hunyadi (who had blocked Ottoman attempts to take
Belgrade),
Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg (who defeated the Ottomans in 1683), the
Battle of Kahlenberg (which marked the beginning of the Ottoman withdrawal from the Siege of Vienna) and "Turkofagos" (Turk eater), the nickname of
Greek War of Independence revolutionary
Nikitaras,) and 40 wounded. His 'manifesto' specifically refers to Turks and utters threats against Turkey, that
Istanbul's mosques will be destroyed and
Hagia Sophia will be
Christianized. He was also playing an associated propaganda song in his car before the shooting. == In contemporary media ==