The collateral impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: ETH Istanbul under the clouds
Original - Odaily
Author - Azuma
From November 13th to 19th, the Devconnect Istanbul summit will be held in Istanbul, Turkeys largest city.
As one of the only summits organized by the Ethereum Foundation (the other is Devcon),The annual Devconnect summit was supposed to be the final event in 2023, allowing Ethereum enthusiasts from all over the world to collide ideas and jointly discuss the future development direction of the Ethereum ecosystem.
However, this vision was disrupted by a sudden war.
Since Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli region has become increasingly tense. Although Istanbul, the venue of this Devconnect Istanbul, is not in Palestine or Israel, due to the deep geopolitical conflicts between Turkey and Israel in recent years, such as the Marmara Incident has also intensified in recent years. This has worsened relations between the two parties, causing Turkey to adopt an extremely tough attitude towards Israel in this incident.
On October 19, Israeli Ambassador to Ankara Yirit Lillian had left Turkey along with other Israeli diplomats. Earlier,Israels National Security Council also issued a warning banning citizens from traveling to Turkey due to security risks.
Under the tension, the preparation process of Devconnect Istanbul and other surrounding activities, as well as the communitys willingness to participate, were also affected.
On October 23, the Ethereum Foundation officially issued a document proposing security recommendations for the organization and participation of Devconnect Istanbul and its surrounding activities.
The Ethereum Foundation pointed out that the Devconnect organizing team has been paying close attention to the public security and safety situation in Istanbul recently.Although the current threat specifically targeting Devconnect Istanbul itself is low, security risks such as large-scale protests and targeted violence do exist in Istanbul, and as the conflict escalates, such risks may continue to intensify in the coming weeks. .
also,The Ethereum Foundation also advises all Israeli nationals, Israelis, and groups of Jewish faith or ancestry to pay attention to the security warnings issued by Israel and carefully consider their travel plans.Considering the large number of developers with Jewish backgrounds in the Crypto world, this warning is bound to affect a considerable number of people planning to attend the conference.
Although it was not explicitly mentioned whether the schedule of Devconnect Istanbul will be changed, it can be seen from between the lines that it is not ruled out that the Ethereum Foundation may adjust its original plan due to heightened risks.
Shortly after the Ethereum Foundation’s proposal was issued, organizers of other surrounding events also followed suit and issued safety tips to community members planning to attend.
ETHGlobal, the organizer of the ETHGlobal Istanbul hackathon, said,The event will still go ahead as planned, but attendees are advised to actively follow government travel guidance and avoid high-risk areas, and all Israelis are strongly advised to pay attention to safety warnings issued by the government.ETHGlobal also stated that it will continue to pay close attention to the local security situation and will continue to notify the community if there are any changes.
As the largest hackathon event in the Ethereum ecosystem, Istanbul is ETHGlobal’s last stop in 2023 after Tokyo, Lisbon, Waterloo, Paris, and New York. It can be seen that the organization hopes to draw a successful conclusion to this year’s efforts. A happy ending.
Relatively speaking, the organizers of other peripheral activities are more decisive. Arbitrum announced this morning that, taking into account the security recommendations of the Ethereum Foundation,Arbitrum Day, Istanbul originally planned to be held offline in Istanbul on November 16 will be changed to an online format.
According to statistics from the Devconnect organizing team, during the duration of Devconnect Istanbul, each community will hold about 50 peripheral activities. However, judging from the current development trend, it can be predicted that the actual number of activities in November will most likely increase to a certain extent. of reduction.
As for the changes in the wishes of ordinary attendees, many completely different voices emerged under a tweet from Bankless founder David Hoffman asking Are you considering canceling your Devconnect travel plan due to safety concerns?Some users still stated that they would stick to their original plans due to their background, planning confidence, or political leanings, but a large number of replies stated that they did have safety concerns and therefore had decided to abandon the trip.
Among the people Odaily contacted who were planning to attend the conference,Some people also said they were hesitating whether to continue going.
All in all, the sudden war and its associated political games are exerting an increasingly uncertain impact on the Ethereum ecological event planned to be held in November.
Once upon a time, we always thought that the Crypto world was far away from the real world. However, judging from recent events such as the founder’s enlistment and account ban, we can never escape the impact of the fluctuations in the real world since we are still alive.
From the perspective of an ordinary individual, I only hope that the world will be peaceful and development will never stop.
