When this video surfaced, it was presented as an Irish tourist attacked by over a dozen Turkish shopkeepers. The truth is a little more complicated.
The basics facts are straightforward.
A tourist was in the Aksaray neighborhood of Istanbul, and went to into a shop. The tourist opened up a shaky refrigerator to remove a bottle of water. When he closed it, perhaps quite hard, a number of bottles of water fell out to the ground. For unknown reasons, the shopkeeper became enraged at some point, and tried to assault the tourist with a stick.
The tourist fought back, with success, and fellow shopkeepers came to the defense of their fellow small-business owner.
Then the tourist took his glasses off, put them on top of his head, and took out some of the shopkeepers, who, when they realized things were not going their way, called for more help. The crowd swelled.
The tourist sought temporary refuge in his hotel, but then was once more into the fray. The crowd by then was armed with clubs and wooden chairs. The tourist retreated to his hotel more than once, gathering his strength, before wading into the threatening shopkeepers again.
Eventually the shopkeepers retreated. The shopkeepers in the area, for the record, are predominantly Kurds, rather than Turks.
Relations between Kurds and Turks are not uniformly warm and fuzzy. Support on social media in Turkey for the tourist was widespread.
Should we write a novel titled ‘The Irish tourist?’ quipped noted Turkish novelist Ahmet Ümit. A women, BakteriPlaa, proposed marriage.
The “Irish tourist boxer” is a Muslim, Kuwait-born and raised Irish citizen named Mohammed Fadel Dobbous. He is not known to be a professional boxer, but clearly has skills.
Clearly.
And for the record, no generalities should be drawn from this single incident. Turkey is beloved destination for tourists worldwide.
But the next time you are in store, wherever you are, and take a bottle of water from the refrigerator, take care that they don’t drop to the ground. No good will come of it.
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