Within December 2-8, 2019, two articles that generate hate speech were selected from print media. You can find two articles that contain hate speech against Syrians, Greeks, and Cypriot Greeks as well as the analyses written about them below.¹

1. The article published in Star with the title “Greek confiscation foiled in the Mediterranean” covers the maritime zone agreement between Turkey and Libya. While the article states that this agreement revealed Southern Cyprus’ “plot for confiscating an area of 217,000 square meters” in the Eastern Mediterranean, the titles “Greek confiscation foiled in the Mediterranean” and “Libya move revealed Cypriot Greek-Greek confiscation” reinforces enmity against Cypriot Greeks and Greeks.

2.  Durmuş Ali Özyiğit, in his column titled “Intruder Syrians” writes: “Of course Syrians are not the only reason for disturbance in the public order. But they are a remarkably large part of it. Given that our nation is already on edge when they hear a Syrian abused a little girl, an entire quarter riots. This has nothing to do with inciting hatred in society. These are instant reflexes”, “A shopkeeper told me that the rents soared because of Syrians”, “And what do ordinary people or our acquaintances say? It is in my title: Intruder Syrians! They say ‘Who is the owner of this country, Syrians or us?’ And they explain ‘We work 8-9 hours a day and make minimum wage or little more, but Syrians receive state aid and also minimum wage. Are they Turkish citizens or are we Syrian?’ Our nation is not racist of course and they do not incite hatred. Because even the fiercest anti-Syrian citizens say ‘We don’t say anything about the elders, women, and children, but the youth should go and defend their country”. With these remarks, he repeats various opinions and misinformation about Syrians without giving any reference. Özyiğit reinforces negative opinions about Syrians with various negative generalizations; he targets Syrian refugees as a “social” threat to Turkish society.

^{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.}