Armenians, Kurds Most Targeted Groups in Turkish Press: Study

The Hrant Dink Foundation’s “Media Watch on Hate Speech” project, which brought together journalists, legal experts and civil society representatives for working meetings, seminars and workshops, highlighted hate speech and its widespread use by the Turkish media in a recently released report.

“Hate Crimes and Hate Speech,” published by the foundation, is a report that compiles the presentations of participants in the foundations’ workshops and seminars. The introduction by Rakel Dink, the wife of slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, states that they wanted to show what discrimination, racism, hate and anger can lead to and how such actions can make people targets and destroy lives.

“During one of the panels, when I remembered the provoking, hateful articles in the newspapers prior to my husband’s murder, when I thought about the times when those horrible threats were uttered, I also thought in pain and sorrow how my dear Çutag buried his fears and anxieties, trying to lead a normal life, how he tried to show as little as possible to those closest to him, even to me,” she states.

The foundation systematically scanned newspapers and articles that used hostile language The study examined 24 newspapers with high circulations, leaving aside their supplements. The most targeted groups were Turkish citizens of Kurdish and Armenian origin. Greeks, Christians in general, and Jews were also often the subjects of news stories or columns that contained hate speech.