[Music]
Hello and welcome to this section titled "Media
coverage of Ireland Kurdi in Turkey and Greece".
This video lecture will be about Ireland Kurdi's
tragic death and the extent of its media coverage.
In 2015, a three-year-old Syrian boy called
Ireland Kurdi was drowned in the agency
while trying to seek asylum in Europe.
A Turkish photojournalist Nilüfer Demir witnessed
and documented the washed-up bodies of the
immigrants, especially that of Ireland's.
Her capturing this incident soon became the most
shared image of refugees on social and print media.
So this presentation starts with the Syrian
civil war, then the journey of Syrian baby
Aylan and the background of his iconic photograph.
Next, media coverage and artworks in Turkey and
Greece will be given. And finally, this part will
be concluded through the discussion of ethics and
power of the image. The Syrian civil war began in
March 2011 with the protests against the Syrian
government that escalated into a brutal multi-sided
war involving the Syrian regime, opposition forces
and foreign powers. The war has devastated Syria,
turning cities into battlegrounds and displacing
millions of people. This humanitarian crisis
worsened as airstrikes, sieges and chemical
attacks destroyed homes, schools and hospitals.
The war has led to one of the largest displacement
crises in modern history. Over 13.
5 million Syrians, which is more than half the country's
pre-war population, have been displaced.
Around 6.8 million Syrians have become refugees seeking
safety in neighboring countries and beyond.
At that time, Turkey had an open-door policy for refugees.
As Syria's closest neighbor, Turkey
has played a crucial role in hosting refugees.
By 2015, the country was home to 3.
5 million Syrian refugees, which is the largest refugee
population in the world at the time.
Many Syrians saw the country as a temporary refuge,
but aimed to reach Western Europe or
North America for better opportunities.
While Turkey maintained an open-door policy,
offering humanitarian aid and temporary protection,
economic and social challenges led
many refugees to look for alternatives.
One of the routes to Europe was the journey from
the western Turkish shores to nearby Greek islands.
Among the people who took the dangerous journey
was the Kurdish family. After failing to obtain
legal permissions to travel, the family decided
to take on a journey. Contacting human smugglers,
they sought to reach the Greek island of Kos in inflated boats.
But soon their boat capsized,
resulting in the death of Aylahan, his brother
and mother, among others, with their bodies
eventually washed ashore in Bodrum.
In that morning, a Turkish photographer named Nilüfer
Demir captures the iconic photographs, and
Aylahan's image becomes the global symbol of the recent refugee crisis.
Aylahan's image circulated in both digital and
print media, raising public awareness worldwide,
including Turkey, and became one of the most shared images globally.
In the following years, Aylahan's death inspired
many artworks and on migrant tragedies, from songs
and short stories to a full-length film based on Aylahan's story.
But the reception of Aylahan's death was
not limited to Turkish art and media.
In this section of the video, we will discuss
the media coverage of Aylahan's death in Greece,
and provide examples of works of art inspired by Aylahan.
While watching the video, please reflect on the
role of media in public discourse about refugees,
and the contribution of art in preserving
the memory of this tragic event.
First, let's take a look at some data
concerning refugees in Greece at the time.
In 2015, Greece experienced an unprecedented influx of refugees.
As you can see on this graph, approximately 900,000 people arrived,
marking a 750% increase compared to 2014.
Nearly 500,000 of them were from Syria.
The majority arrived via the Aegean Sea,
primarily landing on the islands of Lesbos,
Chios, Samos and Kos. Around 35% of the refugees were children.
From January through August of that year, most
media perpetuated negative stereotypes about the
refugees, spreading fear that they posed risks to
public health, the economy and cultural identity.
However, in September, media coverage shifted to sympathy and support.
Among the factors for this change, the
catalyst was the tragic end of Aylahan.
Greek media immediately used material from
international sources to provide information
about Aylahan, presenting his body as a symbol of humanity in crisis.
Let us see some examples. Tovima, a major
newspaper, released this article titled
"The Story of Three-Year-Old Aylahan Haunts
Europe", detailing the boy's life and death.
Tovima stated, "Europe is accountable for the
image of the boy thrown by the waves on the Turkish coast.
It is the reality of a growing refugee crisis.
It is Aylahan Kurdi, the three-year-old
Syrian boy, born amidst the civil war.
" Another newspaper described the photograph of Aylahan
as a "punch in the stomach" and posed the
question, "Can a photograph change the world?
" Passive responding, Ifmerida.gr shared this
article from The Telegraph titled "The Power
of Photography, Tough Images That Shock the
World", placing one of Aylahan's photographs
among those from the Tiananmen Square
protests, the Napalm attack in South Vietnam,
the Nagasaki bomb, and others that you can find in your resources.
This coverage helped emphasize that each refugee
has a name and a story, and highlight Europe's duty to care.
This happened because Aylahan was an
innocent child, washed up on a shore that could
be any shore in the world, and he was lying alone,
as if he had taken it upon himself to bear the
drama of humanity. The symbolic connotations of
Aylahan's images became evident during Christmas that year.
In a square in the city of Kavala,
a cultural group set up this nativity scene
with Aylahan in place of Jesus. And a cultural
center in Zante performed a song called
"Apology to Little Aylahan" in a church.
Please note that all over the world it is primarily art
that has been keeping Aylahan's memory alive.
Examples include the graffiti in Frankfurt in 2016,
Khaled Hosseini's novel "Sea Prayer", and
rapper Lupe Fiasco's song "Alan Forever".
In Greece, musicians in particular have been inspired by Aylahan,
often sharing their work online, from where
these screenshots were taken. A recent piece
is "Alos Enas", another one, by George Nikiforou Zervakis.
Its lyrics are from the refugee perspective,
questioning borders and reminding us that
our ancestors once also left their country.
The video for the song, which you can watch
in your resources, was created by filmmaker
Theo Papadoulakis. The video shows a fisherman
imagining the buoy on the shore rising, while
fish traders yell at their workers, and the
television reports Aylahan's death in the background.
Papadoulakis has said, "This song is about the
little boy, about refugeeism, which is
deeply rooted in the Greek experience.
The lyrics raise profound questions about our origins,
about solidarity, and our ethos." While reading
the translation of the song's lyrics in the video,
please take a moment to consider the issues raised by the director.
Also, reflect on the issues discussed in the rest of the video.
In "Regarding the Pain of Others", Susan Zontag
states that "we can't imagine how dreadful,
how terrifying war is, and how normal it becomes.
Can't understand, can't imagine".
That's what every soldier, and every journalist
and aid worker, and independent observer,
who has put in time under fire, and had the luck
to elude the death that struck down others nearby,
stubbornly feels. And they are right.
In witnessing the tragedy of recent migrant crisis,
the photographer faced the chaos of migration.
With the click of her shutter, she captured an
image that condensed this turmoil into a
singular, powerful focal point of human suffering.
When the image received public attention, it
provided a closer glimpse at the harsh reality
of the migrant crisis. Aylan's image becomes the
first image for showing the recent migrant crisis in one picture.
However, the media's portrayal of
human suffering, like the image of Aylan Kurdi,
raises ethical, political, and social questions
about how tragedy should be represented and its
long-term effects on public consciousness.
Zontag examines whether images of suffering
truly engage audiences, or they merely desynthesize them.
The issue is about showing human suffering openly.
While photographs like Aylan Kurdi's
can raise global awareness, they also risk
turning suffering into a spectacle,
evoking pity rather than prompting action.
Some argue that the baby's image was
essential in breaking political apathy,
humanizing the refugee crisis, and making it undeniable.
Existence of such an image raises public awareness and gives a
chance for political action. Thank you.