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Erenler Is Calming Down 04/05/2010

The tension following the conflict in Sakarya has dropped to a large extent with the mediation of the governor of Sakarya and the Mayor of Erenler. The residents of Sakarya were irritated by the way that the incident was presented in the media. Various
speculations were made on how the events in the evening of April 29 in Yeni Mahalle district in Erenler, Sakarya might have been taken place. Below, we present all the available claims in order to provide accountability journalism and leave you to decide yourself on how the real events might have been occurred.

Why did it happen?

According to one information, the conflict started with the assault of a non-Roma citizen against a Roma girl. Later on, M.K. heavily injured 7 people with his shotgun during an argument where Roma were also involved. A second claim suggests that M.K attacked to those who verbally abused M.K.’s wife with a shotgun. Yet another source reported that, the events that led to 7 shotgun injuries occurred subsequent to the attack of the district inhabitant to M.K. Following the incident, right after the news was presented by the media, a verified information indicates that M.K. had an argument regarding the children throwing stones to his window with his neighbors during the day. It is suggested that he insulted the children because they were making too much noise as they pass his house. His temper at this point further heated the tension up. Although neighbors helped calm the tension, the arguments inflamed once again in the evening and the children’s relatives came to M.K.’s house for a fight. M.K. who lost his temper started randomly shooting at the crowd with his shotgun. M.K. was eventually transferred to another district by the police force, which came to the scene after the incident had taken place.

The tension in the neighborhood was calmed on the 2nd of May following the visit and counseling by Sakarya Chief Constable Ali Bilkay, governor of Sakarya Hüseyin Atak ve Erenler Mayor Cavit Öztürk. The district residents agree that the mediation of the authorities and the leading figures in the district, especially the president of Roma Association Orhan Tanyeli’s efforts calmed the conflict down and that the incident should not have be exaggerated as it had been in several media releases.

The segregation of “Roma and Citizen” in the media

Including the national newpapers, the mode of the language used in media was rather disappointing. Even the well-known media with otherwise tolerant attitude towards such situations put a distinct separation between the terms “Residents and Roma” or “Roma and citizens” in the press releases reminding of some racist Balkan press. The fragments in news such as “Fight between Roma and citizens!”, “Citizens complain against Roma” made one think whether Roma were in fact recognized as citizens by the media. The fact that the ethnic origin of the group has been specifically pointed in this particular conflict irritated the locals, as it is not costumed to mention the ethnic origin of parties in such news. The residents of the district note that they do not want the “Roma” name to remind “fight” or “tension”. The specialists express that the variety of speculations and the biased presentation of the conflict is against journalism ethics. We hope that the conflict in Erenler would completely end at this point, especially after the mediation of the authority, and would never happen again. We believe that our media, the authorities and the residents, what ever their ethic origin might be, have many lessons to learn from this incident.

Source: Cingeneyiz Sakarya