Jews, Armenians Exposed to Most Hate Speech in Turkey
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by Max Elstein Keisler
Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: wiki commons.
A study by Turkey’s Hrant Dink Foundation has found that Jews have become the main object of hate speech in the country, followed by Armenians, Christians, and Greeks.
The study was conducted by scanning 16 newspapers by hand and searching for key words in 1,000 national and local newspapers published between September and December 2012.
The results should come as no surprise. In 2010, Turkish TV aired an antisemitic film, “Valley of the Wolves: Ambush,” which depicted the Mossad spying in Turkey and kidnapping Turkish babies. In January, a display in a Turkish mall sparked controversy for its depiction of Adolf Hitler alongside cultural figures such as the Beatles and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Relations between Israel and Turkey have been strained in recent years. On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called Zionism a “crime against humanity” akin to racism and fascism. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office called Erdogan’s remarks “sinister and mendacious.” Additionally, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Erdogan’s comments were “hollow words that only reflect ignorance.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip to the Middle East this month skips Israel, although he is stopping in Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and several other countries.
