Turkey's Erdogan defends Rohingya to enhance image

Genocide is not a word Turks like to remember or use much because it brings to mind the most controversial issue of the country's history. Discussion of the Armenian genocide, a characterization of the tragedy that befell the Ottoman Armenians in 1915, is blasphemous for many Turks and, above all, for nearly all of Turkey’s political leaders, irrespective of their political conviction.

However, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hasn't refrained from using the word “genocide” when he is outraged by calamities that befall Muslim peoples around the world. A couple of years ago, to the consternation of Chinese leaders, he used the word for the troubles taking place in Xinjiang, also known as East Turkestan. He had spoken of “genocide perpetrated against Uighurs,” referring to the Muslim Turkic community of China.

The word had been deleted from his lexicon for quite some time. Now, it's back. When the plight of the Rohingya people, the Muslim minority in Myanmar (formerly Burma) living next to the border with Bangladesh, made the news all around the world, he reacted with anger. “There is a genocide there,” he said. Speaking at his ruling Justice and Development Party's Eid al-Adha celebration in Istanbul, he didn't hesitate to criticize the passivity of the Muslim world and the alleged indifference of the West. “They remain silent toward this. … All those looking away from this genocide carried out under the veil of democracy are also part of this massacre.”

He then dispatched his wife, Emine, and his elder son, Bilal, to Bangladesh in a high-profile visit to observe the situation of Rohingya Muslims fleeing across the border. That was the first lady’s second visit to the Rohingya people; her first was in August 2012, when Rohingya Muslims were attacked by Myanmar’s Buddhists and armed forces. At that time, her daughter Sumeyye and then-Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accompanied her.