Within January 23 – 29, 2017, five news articles that generate hate speech had been selected from print media for the weekly report. You can find these articles that generate hate speech against Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, Greeks in Turkey and homosexuals and the analyses below.1
1.
İstiklal newspaper's article that was featured in the subheading as “CIA documented the infamy of Greeks” and with the title of “CIA: Athens terrorist organization supported ASALA” inside, reports the claim that CIA's online documents reveals that Syria and Greece are supporting terrorist organizations. In the text, we see some claims about states and former governments and the newspaper defines these claims in the title as “infamy of Greeks”. This generalizing discourse that insults Greek identity leads to accusation of the entire Greek people, consolidation of the negative image of Greeks and incitement of the hatred against Greeks. The article also states, “Prime Minister of the time Andreas Papandreu and his party Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) were reportedly supported Armenian terrorist organization ASALA” and in this way, it identifies Armenian identity with “terrorism” and labels Armenians as “threat risk”.
2.
Ali İhsan Karahasanoğlu, in his column titled “Kırmızı Şemsiye filed a complaint, Press Advertisement Association demanded defence”, targets Kırmızı Şemsiye Association on the ground that it reported Yeni Akit newspaper to Press Advertisement Association. Karahasanoğlu writes, “It might sound funny, but the association was founded by homosexuals. They reported Yeni Akit to Press Advertisement Association” and reveals that he regards homosexuality as a reason for insulting and mocking. He also writes, “These homosexuals, gays and immoral people who define themselves as sex workers and sell their bodies for money, during Ramadan... With an incredible recklessness... Like they are making fun of the faith of people... (…) tried to organize a 'Pride Parade' at the center of Istanbul” and labels homosexuals as “immoral” and “dishonorable”; he portrays them as “threat risk” against society and circulates a discourse that would reinforce the discrimination that LGBTIs have already been subjected to. He creates an hierarchy among different types of discrimination that different groups have been subjected to by writing, “In this country, religious people have been subjected to all kinds of inequalities. Women with headscarves have been insulted in the meanest ways.” He ignores the struggle of LGBTIs and legitimizes discriminatory practices against them. He describes Pride Parade that had been organized without any problem for years as illegal: “Istanbul Governor's Office decided to ban the parade that was planned to be held during Ramadan. However, homosexuals tried to hold the parade illegally and clashed with security forces.” He associates homosexuals with crime and throughout the column, he causes them to be targeted.
3.
Yeni Söz newspaper's special report was headlined as “Apprentices of the devil fighting” and featured inside with the title of “War in the front of devils”. The story covers the conflict between Donald Trump and George Soros who is claimed to be “serving for devil and assigned with transforming the societies”. In this report, Jewish identity is highlighted in a negative way, like it can be seen in the summary: “Jewish Soros, who is known for financing evil plans on behalf of Zionist barons, strongly reacted against Trump.” Jewish identity itself is used as a “threat risk” and symbolized in a negative way. It is also written, “83-years-old dotard, whose wife is also Jewish, has two sons and a daughter” and age is used as an insult. In the section titled “THEIR AIM IS TO DESTROY SOCIETIES AND THEIR VALUES”, Jewish and British people are labeled as enemies of the society and the prejudices against them are incited: “The basic principles of Jewish-funded, British-Jewish-lead social engineering are as follows: 'Try and retreat if the society reacts, continue if the society accepts. If there is any problem, accuse someone else.'” This article, which contains many “conspiracy theories” that might incite enmity, also targets atheists: “By 2013, a group that seemed like leftist, mostly consisting of atheists and feminist who are taking advantage of this country, tried to stage a rebellion on the pretext of protecting a couple of trees. It was revealed that Gezi protests that lasted for about a month had been financed by western forces, especially by Soros.”
4.
Mustafa Önder, in his column titled “Deport Syrians!”, targets Syrians, while he is criticizing refugee policy of the state. With statements like “Republic of Turkey belongs to Turkish nation and we will never accept another plot of assimilation”, he regenerates nationalist discourse and marks Syrians as “threat risk” against Turkey. Praising militarism throughout the column, Önder portrays Syrians as inferior to Turks, leads the readers to establish an hierarchy between Turks and Syrians and labels Syrians as “traitors”. He writes, “They are drinking whiskey and dancing in Reina on New Year's Eve; they are living as beggars in a foreign country and working for a pittance instead of fighting against the enemy in their country. Who could they be? Of course Syrian Arabs!” With these remarks, he generates a negative perception about Syrians and Arabs who are struggling for their lives and incites hatred and discrimination against them. He also writes, “Because of them, Turkey sends Turkish soldiers to Syria for maintaining border safety! Turkey uses the budget of its own people to feed the ones who ran away from their country! A faithful, Muslim Syrian is the one who fights for his country. The believers wouldn't leave their country to the mercy of Christians.” The columnist reinforces the oppositions of Syrian-Turk and Muslim-Christian and questions the faith of individuals. He also labels Christians as “threat risk”; with marginalizing discourse deprived of sympathy, he prevents people from questioning the devastating effects of war and conditions that force Syrians to live without social insurance and in dangerous circumstances.
He also put forward some claims that might lead people to associate their current economic concerns with Syrians, whom he makes scapegoats: “Unemployment is increasing in Turkey day by day. To top it all, wages are decreasing because of Syrians.” He also circulates xenophobia: “This country became a fake heaven where illegal Armenian, Georgian, Russian and other Asian workers started to work even in our homes as caretakers.” Lastly, he implies that Syrians are “intruders” and escalates the concerns of the society: “3 million so-called Syrian refugees are living in our country where terrorists, spies and hired killers are swarming. They are swarming all over the country, defying even our shopkeepers and engaged in political movements.”
5.
Atilla Çilingir, in his column titled “Turkey with the marks of decades”, writes what happened in Cyprus in '60s with a discourse that contains quite pornographic descriptions of war and incites enmity between Turkish and Greek people. Throughout the column, Çilingir demonizes Greek identity by associating Greeks with “atrocity” and “massacre” and using statements and descriptions containing enmity and hatred, as we can see in the following sentences: “Attacks of the Greeks, which went down in history as 1 December 1963 Bloody Christmas Attacks, are still fresh in the minds” and “Greeks who attacked Küçük Kaymaklı later mercilessly shot an old and bedridden hodja to death. They took away the blood of the hospitalized ones and left them to die.” He also uses the word “giaour”, which is used as a word of hatred and insult against non-Muslim identities, and incites hatred against non-Muslims. He also dehumanizes Greeks: “Greeks moved like a cat that creeps up on its prey. Like venomous snakes...” Çilingir's provocative discourse and statements like “I wrote this so that you don't forget those years” bring enmity to the present and pose an obstacle to co-existence.
1. Within the scope of the media scanning work focusing on hate speech, all national newspapers and around 500 local newspapers are scanned based on pre-determined keywords (e.g. Traitor, apostate, refugee, Christian, Jewish, separatist, etc.) by 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.
