Within July 2-8, 2018, four articles that generate hate speech were selected. You can find these articles that contain hate speech against LGBTIs, Jews, Syrians and non-Muslims as well as the analyses written about them below.1
1.
Zafer Çam in his column titled “Shameless ones looking for pride”, insults LGBTIs and labels them as “dishonorable” as we see in the following passage: “Community of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals. All the faggots in the world and Turkey come together. They stage pride march in Muslim quarter. If you have pride, why do you stage pride march. This march is for the ones who don’t have honor. So you know you are lacking it. And that is why you taint the good old streets.” He also targets LGBTIs as a “perversion that would cause the destruction of societies” by claiming that their existence is not legitimate as we see in the following remarks: “Their aim is to spread to Anatolia and taint our beautiful cities. You might ask whether there are those kinds of people in our cities. Of course there are. But at least they do it secretly when they know that it is not legitimate. I am talking about the ones who do it publicly, who have no limits in perversion and make a habit out of it. Isn’t there any reason to think that these perverts would cause the destruction of today’s societies?” Thus, Çam repeatedly insults LGBTIs and targets them by labeling them as a “threat” against society. |
2.
The article published in Konya Yenigün with the title “Jews cut 350 grape trees down belonging to Palestinians” covers the story by holding all Jews responsible for the incident. Thus, the newspaper reinforces negative opinions about Jewish identity and strengthens the perception of enmity against Jews. |
3.
Selahattin Adıgüzeller in his column titled “Biting the hand that feeds you”, accuses Syrians who escaped from the war in their country and took shelter in Turkey of being “ungrateful” as we see in the following remarks: “There is a common proverb like ‘kindness causes problems’… And other one ‘biting the hand that feeds you’… Lately, we have been witnessing incidents that confirm these proverbs… Especially in places where Syrians who escaped from the war in their country and took shelter in our country live!”, “Enough with this hospitality toward these cowards who didn’t even stay to protect their country! Now that Syrian government urges them to return, just send them before kindness causes any problem! They may swing their machetes in their own country!” Adıgüzeller makes a distinction between a “good” and “bad” guest and presents Syrian refugees as a “threat” against the social order. Thus, the columnist reinforces negative perception of Syrians and urges people to adopt a hostile attitude towards Syrians. |
4.
Seyfi Şahin in his column titled “Insulting Turks” writes: “The ones who attack Islam by using the ones who look like Muslims in Turkey but accumulate property without thinking whether it is halal or ill-gotten, govern the state and make grave mistakes both in terms of religion and nation should know that they are also influenced by the giaour”, “Lately, there is a tendency to praise the giaour and insult Turks and Islam” and “Turkish nation is a supreme nation that nail the giaour down in Afrin, does not hesitate to risk their lives and protects its honor. Just look around…” With these statements, he reinforces the perception of enmity against non-Muslims by using the word “giaour” which is used as an expression of hatred and insult against non-Muslims in Turkey. |
1. Within the scope of the media monitoring work focusing on hate speech, all national newspapers and around 500 local newspapers are monitored based on pre-determined keywords (e.g. Traitor, apostate, refugee, Christian, Jewish, separatist, etc.) via the media monitoring center. While the main focus has been hate speech on the basis of national, ethnic and religious identities; sexist and homophobic discourses are also examined as part of the monitoring work.
