Reaction grows over daily’s hate speech

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

Orhan Pamuk, DHA Photo

A criminal complaint has been filed against a Turkish daily by some 221 writers, artists, politicians and business people for spreading hate speech against a columnist, “blaming” him for being Armenian.

Turkish daily Yeni Akit has been targeting Ali Bayramoğlu, a columnist for daily Yeni Şafak, for his views on Turkey’s minority issues, referring to him as an “Armenian-origin columnist” the group said.

The group filing the complaint condemned Yeni Akit’s stories which targeted Bayramoğlu and said the daily was spreading hate against minorities in Turkey, an act that should be considered a hate crime. “We find it dangerous the broadcasting policy which regards ethnic and religious identities as the enemy. The daily has been acting racist and encoding writers and intellectuals as ‘Armenian, Rum (Anatolian Greek,) or Jewish,’” the statement read.

The group also said Bayramoğlu was being pointed to as a target similarly to slain Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink.

The paper also owns a website called habervaktim.com which pursues the same policy.

Nobel Prize Laureate Orhan Pamuk, businessman İshak Alaton and Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir were among the signers.