Epress.am News from Armenia
Some civil society groups, academics and journalists in Turkey have said hate speech and hate crimes are serious problems in the country and that there is a need for legislation that combats both hate speech and hate crimes, which are widespread in Turkey but not well documented with the exception of a few prominent cases, reports Today’s Zaman.
The Hate Crimes Conference organized by the Association for Social Change (SDD) and Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism! (Dur De!) on April 15-17 opened with the presentation of sample cases in order to face the country’s past.
The cases included a smear campaign against musician Ahmet Kaya, who died in Paris in 2000 at the age of 43 during self-imposed exile to escape several charges arising from his political views; the 2007 murder of journalist Hrant Dink, who was the editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos; in Malatya, the Zirve murders of 2007 when three people who sold Christian literature were brutally killed; the murder of Catholic priest Father Andrea Santoro in Trabzon.
The cases also included a vigilante campaign against Roma living in Selendi, Manisa, when about 70 Roma, including 15 children, were forced to leave a village last year.
While some in attendance emphasized criminal organizations with illegitimate goals as being behind hate crimes, others underlined the media’s huge role in contributing to hate speech. Journalist and writer Oral Çalışlar said some prominent journalists who are the most fervent practitioners of hate speech still continue to be prominent journalistic figures. “Take Yılmaz Özdil,” he said.
“He still writes his columns,” Çalışlar said, referring to Hürriyet daily columnist Özdil’s article in which he advocated violence against a Kurdish politician because of his views. Çalışlar also pointed out that sports news is full of hate speech and an aggressiveness that should be taken seriously as it has been increasing more and more.
Media critic Ragıp Duran, Çalışlar and other participants in the conference emphasized that hate speech should be evaluated in a multi-dimensional way as the country’s education system is likely to make people prone to hating others who are not “Turks.”
Nevertheless, the need for anti-hate crime legislation, which Turkey lacks, has been put forward. Levent Şensever, general secretary of the SDD, told Today’s Zaman that they are planning to organize a wide-ranging campaign to push for legislation against hate crimes, but this is likely to happen after the June 12 general election since Parliament is in recess for election campaigns.
International participants at the conference discussed experiences in other parts of the world and how other countries have dealt with hate crimes.
“Hate crime laws impose tougher penalties on criminals who target their victims because of the victim’s race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability,” said Robert O. Trestan from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) based in the United States.