The anatomy of a disgrace

The climbing of a group of people to the top of the entrance of the Surp Takavor Armenian Church in Istanbul’s Kadıköy in a way that cannot be called “fun” brought a multi-layered problem into question and caused the right reaction of “different camps.”

After the images of this shameful disrespect emerged, reactions immediately occurred and a judicial and administrative investigation was launched against the perpetrators.

This disgrace on the walls of a church, which has a 400-year-old history, cannot be tolerated in all aspects, but as I said, these are multi-layered incidents.

Entertainment life has been stuck in a few places, especially in Kadıköy and Beşiktaş, in Istanbul for a very long time. Looking at the rising rebellion on social media, we see that there are similar complaints in many places from the Güzelyalı beach in İzmir to Istanbul’s Cihangir neighborhood. This causes an influx of people to certain places.

And I don’t want to shock you, but it’s not a new incident. In order to deal with the issue correctly, it is necessary to distinguish between apples and pears first.

There are businesses that are fed up with these incidents and do their job properly by abiding by rules in central Beşiktaş Çarşı, Kadıköy and Cihangir or around other cities, districts, parks and gardens. They are not pleased with these incidents on the streets, too.

The situation of the residents of the neighborhood is already very bad. No one would like to see people’s shouting, playing loud music from their cars, turning the place into a mess and leaving no peace around their house.

Of course, there will be those who want to use the current disgrace as a reason for new prohibitions. I wish luck for those who want to tighten the prohibitions rather than looking at the quality of our education system or the ratio of the youth in the unemployment figures.

By looking at the example of Beyoğlu, we can see the results of systematic pressures on the entertainment life. Twenty years ago, when we were about to turn into one of the world’s modern entertainment centers, the well-established businesses were walked all over.

I don’t expect a solution, and I don’t think there will be a reasonable discussion atmosphere. “We’ll see” with such reactions, temporary measures and bans.