After avoiding Reddit for years, I was forced into the dark depths of the internet by my English class. I don't know much about reddit, but I do know that my fifteen year old brother spends a frightening amount of time on it.
Searching the site for "Middle East News" changed my perspective-- people focused on the funny, bizarre stories coming out of the region. The top stories include an Israeli vulture spy and Egyptians arrested for playing with condoms, but none of those elicited strong reactions from commenters. The most intellectual conversations I found were in the Syria forum, where people politely shared their views on Assad's role in Syria. The most active and passionate conversations, however, were about Turkey.
Diyarbakır is a considered the Kurdish political and social capital in Turkey. As a result, it has been targeted by the government whenever any Kurdish-related violence erupts. The government recently imposed a 24 hour curfew that restricts both residents and journalists. People are fleeing to neighboring villages before the curfew is enacted.
Searching the site for "Middle East News" changed my perspective-- people focused on the funny, bizarre stories coming out of the region. The top stories include an Israeli vulture spy and Egyptians arrested for playing with condoms, but none of those elicited strong reactions from commenters. The most intellectual conversations I found were in the Syria forum, where people politely shared their views on Assad's role in Syria. The most active and passionate conversations, however, were about Turkey.
Is the HDP a PKK Puppet?
Background
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| Leah Crowder. "HDP Rally." 05/2015 |
Turkey has a problem with its Kurdish population (about 20% of the country.) They refuse to assimilate and calls for an autonomous Kurdish region have grown violent after the recent collapse of the 2013 ceasefire. The PKK is the main group organizing this insurgency, and the HDP is a Kurd-majority political party.
The Discussion
The people of Reddit don't seem to care about the story that was posted. The thread became a place to debate the entire Kurdish issue in Turkey as well as in Iraq, Syria, and Iran. Posts in Turkish were much more likely to blame the Kurds for the entire situation than the English counterparts. But the English language posts didn't usually point fingers. Instead they asked thought provoking, albeit often misspelled, questions like "if 20 million people are enemies of the state, who does State really belong to?"
24 Hour Curfew in Diyarbakır, Turkey
Background
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| Ilyas Engin. "Man with Washing Machine". 2016 |
The Discussion
Unlike the previous comment section, this thread didn't include any pro-government sentiment. Many commenters expressed shock at realizing how complex and devastating this conflict. The Reddit community is much more pro-Kurd than any other online community that I have seen. Besides my Kurdish instructor, I hadn't found anyone who cares about the plight of the Kurds in Turkey. It was really great to see people passionately debating these important issues. I'm not scared of Reddit anymore.
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