5th October 2006

Anya Whiteside writes a powerful letter here to Mr Blair on terrorism, peace and a plea over Iran. A copy has also been sent to Stroud News and Journal who are considering publication: 

Mr Blair,

I write this letter from Eastern Turkey where I am travelling around during my University holidays. I felt compelled to write as for the first time I have been embarrassed to admit to being British to the wonderful people I have met in Turkey.

Everywhere I have been in Eastern Turkey I have been met with genuine kindness. People have gone out of their way to help me and look after me. What do I say to these people who have welcomed me into their homes, fed and helped me a mere 10km from Iran and a couple of hundred kilometres from Iraq, when they ask me “why does Britain kill children in Iraq?” I have no answer to them, because despite constant reading of different newspapers, listening to numerous speeches made by yourself and others I still do not know. Why did Britain attack Iraq Mr Blair? Why are Iraqi children dying? What good has the Iraq war done? Why should I feel I have to apologize for a crime against humanity committed in my name to which I never consented?

As an Eleven year old I helped my Dad leaflet for Labour before the 97 elections, and I now ask myself, as he does ‘why?’ So that I could be ashamed to be the British because of the actions committed by your Government?

I blame you and your government Mr Blair not only for the brutalities caused to civilians in both Iraq and Afghanistan with no good justifications but also for the wider repercussions these actions have had. I cannot believe the number of people who have questioned the safety of travelling in Turkey. Not the safety of the roads, not the safety of climbing the Kackar mountains but the risk of being ‘attacked’, the risk of ‘terrorism’. the unspoken reality is that people believe that I am unsafe because a Muslim country may have many terrorists. Would they have said this to me in the past? Or has your ‘War on terror’ (how can you have a war on an emotion such as ‘terror’) encouraged racism and discrimination against Muslims?

I wonder whether people who have welcomed me so kindly here despite the great wrongs they believe Britain has committed would be greeted the sme way now in Britain. Growing up in Peckham I have always been proud to live in a country so positively multicultural. But now I see fear reflected through discrimination in the attitude of British citizens. this change did not come solely out of September 11th or the London bombings, but has built up as a constant paranoia about terrorism has been spread by the labour government and the press. I ask how anyone can clain that actions such as the Iraq war have made us ‘safer’. How can I believe British people  feel safe when they question why I am going to Turkey, something they would not have done five years ago. How can we be safer when the Iraq war is so universally condemned? Does pointless violence really decrease the likelihood of hate and therefore terrorism?

One last point in my rant, which however ineloquent has risen out of the fact that I truly believe Britain is committing wrongs and strengthening terrorism through its actions. On an autobus today an Iranian man with a child visiting Turkey gave me his seat. While watching him laugh with his little girl I wondered what their fate would be if Britain in her ‘divine wisdom’ decides to attack Iran.

And so this letter ends with a plea. Please Mr Blair do not create a further sense of persecution from the west among Muslims. How can a country with nuclear weapons deny them to another country without first getting rid of their own? Please do not use another unjustified pretext to go to war, war surely should only ever be a last option. there are so many ways in which Britain could do good in the world, do not force me to feel embarrassed as a British traveller by increasing the wrongs.

Yours sincerely,

Anya Whiteside,

Lypiatt, Stroud