SYRIAN REFUGEES

Hardly a week goes without another report of Syrian refugees appering in the
media. Syrian civil war has been being well under way since 2011. The people
who are exposed to this ordeal have been evading from the ongoing
oppression in their coutry and immigrating to initially the adjacent counties
such as Turkey, Iraq, subsequently the much more prosperous countries; thus
the issue of Syrian civil war have transcended the local borderies, spawned an
international crisis. This case have compelled the government along apt lines
for not only Syrian refugees but also all their attendant political, economic, and
social problems. Patronage of Syrian refugees entails making provision for
asylum and food. Correspondingly, this issue had repercussions among the
people whose countries are immigrated . They started to regard those people
as parasites with revulsion. There, however, are some opponents those ideas.
This raises the issue of whether Syrian refugees should go back their country or
not. The arguments in this connection are still proceeding feverishly.

From the point of view of the essay which was published by Boğaziçi
University Press,called Syrian Refugees, the thoughts of both governments and
the common people about how should pursue policies on the issue of Syrian
refugees is illustrated clearly. In the first part, whereas it is called for the male
refugees to go back and fight by Winston Peters that is New Zeland Deputy
Prime Minister, this idea is argued aganist by Dr. Zain Ali, who is from the
Islamic Studies Research Unit, by saying that “there are, according to BBC,
1000 rebel groups – which one do you want them to fight for?” In the second
part, the UK government ensures the patronage of Syrians while the Polish
government postulates that Syrian refugees should go and fight to ‘liberate’
their countries. In the third part, there are two comments which is argued
aganist “go home” ideas by Sam Eiji and Maya La. They claim that Syrian
Refugees are not soldiers, they are just “losers” They cannot be hold
accountable for that war.

It seems to me that people who support the idea of fight for a country, an
ideology or something else are entagled with preeminence of those concepts. I
would also say that it is a personal idea, both people who fight for their
countries and who decided to immigrate and not to fight should be respected
for their decisions, and nobody should not compel to fight for issue which they
do not support. I am convinced that dispatching someone without his or her
consent is out of the concept of civil liberties. Therefore, in my perspective, this
decision belongs to them, on the one hand, and, on the other, it goes without
saying that syrian refugees reveal some problems in every host country.
Developing countries, for instance, try to reckon with their own problems,
meanwhile they make an effort to adress the needs of Syrian
people,accordingly, it aggravates the problems which they have already
had ,also it sets the stage for new problems. As for prosperous countries,they
suffer from this issue in a similar way. Even though they have no such big
problems as developing countries have, as a matter of fact that they help the
refugees at the expense of losing of the balance of status quo. This can solely
be dealt with if government balances its citizens and refugees painstakingly.

The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that as long as the war goes on, the
refugees continue to immigrate. The ideas which involves dimensions is out
of the civil liberties are not acceptable. As to the people who live in the host
countries, the governments should implement a apt policy to protect theirs
rights.
SYRIAN REFUGEES

Syrian refugees is a compilation article about whether the refugees should go

back to their country in order to fight or stay in other countrys and maintain
their lives there. These articles are adopted from dailymail.com, express.com
and an online discussion platform called quora and opinions in the end are
written by San Eiji( November 25,2015) and Maya La (August 26,2015).

Articles first part includes the attitude of Winston Peters, formerly Deputy
Prime Minister, towards Syrian refugees. He suggests that male refugees
should go back to Syria to ‘fight for their freedom’. However, his idea was
declined by experts who believe that it comprises of illogical points and
cruelity. An expert from University of Auckland says that: “You are saying to
them ‘go and fight for your freedom’. But in Syria at the moment there are,
according to the BBC, 1000 different rebel groups- which one do you want
them to fight for? The second part of the article can be seen as an evolved
version of Mr. Peter’s idea. The POLISH governments Foreign Minister says that
refugees can be turned into soldiers to relegate the rebel groups in Syria and
take back the control of the Middle Eastern country. He backs up his idea by
ascribing the refugees who are living in Europe to a useless group of people
that is not conducive to the prosperity of the country and is just wandering
around with their Ipads and cellphones. He doesn’t see them as a community
that needs an aid, instead he thinks it is an unmerited favour to give a shelter
to them. Lastly the third part contains ideas which differ from the two ministers
ideas in that these ideas depict a positive attitude towards refugees and display
a emphatethic behaviour. Sam Eiji indicates that refugees are innocent civilians
who shouldn’t be punished on behalf of their country and they had better stay
in EU or US due to the unsafe conditions that pose threats such as raping and
starvation. Maya La thinks that it is an ignorancy to expect civilians to face an
army with no mercy and she says that : “Ther is one thing you should know
about wars: there are only losers, no winners in a war. She knows that this is
delibaretly sending them to die.

In my opinion approaching a problem in which a lot of countrys participate,

every aspect should be considered comprehensively before choosing a side and
we should be impartial. In retrospect it is true that war means loss, famous
philosopher Bertrand Russel says that “War doesn’t determine who is right,
only who is left.” I think that if we are living in 21st century which has
technologhical developments that facilitate our lives and if we have computers
that are processing information and simultaneously giving us information which
is immensely larger from the total data that we have gathered since the first
step in technology, why are we still considering solutions that are primitive?
We only have one life and world, I will never deny the necessity of war if we are
deficit of ways, but in this case it is not. Sending civilians back to their countrys
even if they become soldiers is not efficient. Crisis in Syria is a complicated
topic and the refugees are in limbo. I think the best result is to educate them
and help them get into society. It sounds too optimistic but a culture shock is
definitely happening and it will have negative effects on both refugees and the
citizens of the society. This means refugees should work, they should pay taxes,
they should follow the rules of the country and countrys should unite their
powers and finish rebel groups which actually they have created first. Egoism
and greed is the reason of problems in this world.

Overall, I believe every side is guilty. Syrian’s should take responsible actions
towards society but also society should help them too and we should consider
war or fighting as the last option. We must reap the benefits of technology in
our problems. Countrys shouldn’t invade other countrys because of greed.

Syrian refugees escaped from the war in Syria and their immigration to other
countries from there started in 2011. Now, since almost all the civilian
population has moved from Syria, there are only soldiers and rebel groups in
their homeland. The immigration posed many problems in their lives from the
aspect of both sides: Syrians and the government which runs the country that
Syrians has moved. In their new residences, Syrians faced with many difficulties
such as racism and adjustment problems. On the other hand, the immigration
is governments’ almost most difficult problem to solve because some refugees
are seen dangers for the new neighborhood due to their attitude and
foreignness. Various solutions for the refugees have been discussed by other
countries’ leaders since the year that immigration started. Some of these
solutions were given in the essay and their opposing views were appended,
too.
It is a controversial solution to ask the refugees to go back and fight. Lots of
people claim that it is a horrible idea even though many leaders suggest
analogous solutions. For instance, the New Zealand First Party leader Winston
Peters called for male Syrians to go back home while Dr. Zain Ali, who is from
University of Auckland, objected the idea by explaining the BBC’s research
which alleges there are 1000 rebel groups in Syria. He also added that it is an
illogical request to want them to go back and fight for their “liberty”. Similarly,
Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszcykowski said that it would be useful way
for Syrians to be turned into soldiers so they can return and liberate the
country, but this idea was harshly criticized, too.

I find Peters’ idea useless and redundant since trying to survive under the
challenging conditions of war is something that no human should experience.
When we consider the situation of Syria right now, we can easily understand
the willing of Syrians to live in another country because their homeland was
almost exterminated. There are almost 1000 rebel groups which wants to be
the authority in Syria and all of them think that they are the greatest and
strongest, so no compromises could have been done by now. It is a serious
request to ask Syrians go back home and its consequences must be estimated
attentively. In my opinion, dispatching any civilian to a war must be considered
as a crime according to the human rights because living is a person’s greatest
right. Instead of sending them back to a war zone, leaders must get into action
to enhance refugees’ new lie conditions and think more about how the
government can teach them to adjust to the new country and culture as well.

To sum up, immigration is not a problem that can be solved by suggesting some
ideas, it can only be solved by getting into action. We must consider the
difficulties (s)he might have experienced before we judge someone, especially
the ones who do not live under the same conditions with us.
 AFRO-TURKS

The term Afro-Turks refers to the descendant of slaves who have originated
from Africa. They have been brought to the Ottoman Empire, resided in the
Aegean region predominantly, and worked in distinct fields. Since the slavery
idea was gone with the end of the Ottoman Empire, they started to have a
regular place in the community. While they have been living in Turkey for ages,
having Turkish names and receiving Turkish education just as their Turkish
neighbors; they have to face some challenges such as racial discrimination,
bullying in the school and microaggression. Some of these challenges and
desires of Afro-Turks are given in the essay.

The Ottoman legislation have regarded slavery. Slaves could be bought, worked
and sold. On the other hand, they were most likely treated with a certain
degree of benevolence and were regarded as household members in several
cases which indicates the tolerance policy of the Ottoman Empire. African
slaves in the Ottoman were mostly women who worked as household workers
and they were occasionally married to Turks. There were also Eunuch boys who
had been taken from their homeland, castrated and worked in the Sultan’s
palace as guardians. After being free with the end of slavery ideology, Afro-
Turks returned to normal life in the society. When leaving their homeland, they
had left their culture and lifestyle behind which facilitated their adaptation to
an entirely new community. Nevertheless, since being forbidden to speak their
native language and pray according to their beliefs in the Ottoman Empire, the
African slaves could not pass on their culture to the next generations;
eventually, they formed their own culture. Having been living in this land for a
long time, Afro-Turks need to be heard and represented more in the
community. However, they do not have sufficient support yet. Although they
currently speak exactly like any Turkish citizen, they differ from others in terms
of their skin color and unique hair, so that they draw some attention. Such
mostly is considered to be in vain by Afro-Turks. They want this attention can
make real alteration and they want to be treated as ordinary as they are
unique. The fact that Afro-Turks’ story remains unknown in Turkey; whereas
similar stories in the world create an enormous impact on the media is
heartbreaking.

I heard about Afro-Turks for the first time in this essay and it was surprising to
learn that the Turkish community consists of this kind of diversity. It is also
shameful for us that the majority of the community does not know about them.
I am certainly against any kind of slavery, yet it can be understandable that the
Ottoman Empire had this system like every other contemporary state.
Nonetheless, it does not change the fact that slavery posed some horrible
consequences such as the tragic story of Eunuchs. As I said above, they were
taken from their families at an early age and prepared to be guardians of the
Harem. While being a significant figure of the sultanate’s life and Ottoman’s
politics, they were mostly scarred from their childhood trauma. As mentioned
in the essay, according to some scholars, while they were preparing for their
future duty, nearly 60 percent of Eunuch boys could not survive. This is a
dreadful fact that can not be ignored. Besides all this slavery idea, in today’s
community, Afro-Turks still have some problems. Although having put so much
effort to adapt to this society, they, unfortunately, can not be accepted yet.
While they are struggling with dual identity and cultural conflict in their homes,
they face various discrimination outside. Even many of them choose not to
continue their education or choose their work areas carefully because of socio-
economic barriers. Needing to be accepted into the society, they have to
indicate some stereotypical characteristics. This can be sounded absurd, but
this is their reality with which we can not empathize fairly and we, as a society,
had better try to understand them as much as we can.

In conclusion, being unable to change what happened in the past, it is

substantial to publish their voice. Afro-Turks, who have been an aspect of this
society as much as we are, need representatives in the media, literature, even
politics; and we should immediately start announcing their existence.
Furthermore, in order to find a solution to those unpleasant discriminations,
we have to expand awareness of the community and stick together as one big
society.