Sometimes a tweet with no malicious forethought can mess up foreign relations. AL Monitor‘s Pinar Tremblay reports on the reaction to a US Navy tweet:
The US Navy celebrated its 241st birthday on Oct. 13 and sent a few tweets to celebrate. However, one was deleted in less than 24 hours. The deleted tweet contained three images of historical navy moments, with the words “America’s Sailor. For 241 Years: Tough. Bold. Ready.” One of the images was a painting, “Decatur Boarding a Tripolitan Gunboat,” done in 1858 by the artist Dennis Malone Carter. …
Turkish social media users immediately started attacking the @USNavy account, posting offensive digitally altered imageryand threats. In a few hours, hashtags about the post were trending and several news agencies shared the tweet with rather negative comments, especially those with links to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). …
Reactions were so strong that the Turkish Foreign Ministry protested the tweet, which was eventually deleted.
So what ginned this up? Pinar gives a couple of hypotheses:
Although it’s not pleasant, we must question two crucial factors that led to such outbursts in the Turkish social networks. First, there is significant discontent and anger building up in Turkey over domestic and regional politics. Second, US-bashing is not only permissible but rewarded in Turkey. Turks who are not able to repeat a simple joke about their government or even retweet a link to an opinion piece can criticize US policies and actions with no holds barred.
Suggesting the current Turkish government is worried about popular support, despite the turnout of citizens for the government during the recent failed coup attempt. It would be interesting to understand the dynamics in this case. Does it have to do with the volatile religious atmosphere? The lust for power of this or that faction? Hard for me to say, but I’m sure there are observers who know the up and up.
