‘You were Charlie, you were Paris. Will you be Ankara?’ is widely shared on Facebook

A powerful suicide bombing attack on a bus stop in Ankara killing at least 37 people. However the lack of empathy for the Ankara blast victims on social media networks irked James Taylor so he made a Facebook post which called for world citizens to unite behind Ankara blast victims as they did when Charlie Hebdo and Paris terrorist attacks happened.

James Taylor, who lives in Ankara, encouraged readers to imagine the attacks happened where they live.

“[It] is the equivalent of a bomb going off outside Debenhams on the Drapery in Northampton, or on New street in Birmingham, or Piccadilly Circus in London,” he wrote. “Can you imagine being there? Can you imagine the place you walk past every day, the bus stops you use, the roads you cross being obliterated.”

The post found resonance among the Facebook users and has been shared 40,000 times upto the time of writing this article.

Taylor goes on to quell fears of Ankara turning into a battlezone. “Contrary to what many people think, Turkey is not the Middle East,” Taylor adds. “Ankara is not a war zone, it is a normal modern bustling city, just like any other European capital, and Kizilay is the absolute heart, the centre.

“It is very easy to look at terror attacks that happen in London, in New York, in Paris and feel pain and sadness for those victims, so why is it not the same for Ankara?

“Is it because you just don’t realise that Ankara is no different from any of these cities?”

Maybe Taylor is right, there is discrimination for terror events happening in Western countries but similar incidents happening in Africa, Asia and in this case, Turkey are not given that much importance.