Jews, Armenians main targets of hate speech

ISTANBUL

Turkish journalist of Armenian origin Hrant Dink was the chief editor of Agos, a newspaper published in Turkish and Armenian, when he was shot in front of his office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. The international Hrant Dink Foundation was founded by his family after his murder. AA photo

Jews and Armenians are exposed to hate speech more than any other group, according to a periodic report on hate speech in the Turkish media, released by the Hrant Dink Foundation.

The report was conducted by scanning 16 newspapers by hand and searching for key words in the rest of the 1,000 national and local newspapers published between September and December 2012.

Jews and Armenians are used in hate speech the most, followed by Christians and Greeks living in Turkey, according to the report released Feb. 25 on the website of the Hrant Dink Foundation. The category of “other” is composed of hate speech against LGBT people and women.

Certain people and institutions are also exposed to hate crimes apart from ethnic, religious and national groups, the report said. Columns topped the list of media that has used hate speech most frequently.

Although the amount of hate speech targeting Kurdish people decreased in this period, the report contends that this was a result of differentiating between “good Kurds” and “others in the media.” The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) is widely considered the same as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Group (PKK) and subsequently became a target of hate speech as well, the report added.




The top three dailies that included hate speech content are Yeni Akit, Milli Gazete and Yeni Mesaj, respectively, the report said, adding that in the local media, Istanbul, Gölcük Postası, and Yozgat Hakimiyet were top three dailies that used hate speech the most.