TURKEY

Armenians rank first, Jews rank second

The latest ‘Media Watch on Hate Speech Report’, a report published every four months by Hrant Dink Foundation was published last week.
Armenians rank first, Jews rank second

According to the report, within the four-month period covering January, February, March, and April 2018, 2.265 columns and news articles targeting national, ethnic and religious groups had been identified. Since 105 publications generated hate speech targeting more than one group in different categories, these columns and articles were analyzed in accordance with the number of featured groups/categories (multiple times) thus totaling the number of analyzed number of articles to 2.370. In all these analyzed articles and columns, 3.076 hate speech items targeting 76 different groups were identified.

Among the 15 groups targeted the most by hate speech Armenians ranked first while Jews came second and Greeks came third. Syrians, Greeks of Turkey and Christians followed. While there were 671 articles about Armenians, the number of articles and columns inciting hate against Jews reached 427. 

Hate speech targeting Jews escalated in parallel to the increasing number of news articles about Israel during the Al-Aqsa Mosque incidents. Jewish people were identified with violence. Instead of using the words such as Israel, State of Israel, Israeli Government and/or Israeli Army in the news, Jewish identity was used in a generalized manner thus portraying all Jews as target. Jewish identity was used as an expression of insult. 

When reviewed in detail, 41 percent of the articles and columns generating hate speech were published in national publications while 59 percent were published in local newspapers. While overall 935 articles and columns generating hate speech were published in 39 national newspapers, 1.330 articles and columns generating hate speech were published in 390 local newspapers. The top three publications that generate hate speech in national newspaper category are Yeni Akit, Milli Gazete and Yenicag.

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