HATE CRIME MONITORING PROJECT AGAINST GULEN
MOVEMENT MEMBERS
THE GOAL OF THE PROJECT
To raise awareness about hate speech,
incitement to violence and discrimination against members of the Gülen/Hizmet
Movement carried out under the leadership of the AKP government, and to fight
against incitement to violence.
METHOD
Within the scope of the media screening study
focusing on hate speech against a group (members of the Gülen Movement), all
predetermined keywords and phrases (for example, feto, traitor, putschist,
virus, assassin, spy, puppet, servant of foreign powers) in all national
newspapers and in the speeches of politicians) have been scanned through a
special program.
The texts containing hate speech have been
determined by reading the news texts and columns containing keywords from
accessible newspapers and internet news sites.
The recommendations adopted by the Committee
of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 1997 have been taken as a basis for
the determination of hate speech in news texts, columns, politicians’
discourses, and other statements. In this context, it is aimed to identify any
form of expression that spreads, provokes, encourages or legitimizes forms of
hatred based on intolerance, expressed in the form of discrimination and
hostility towards the group defined as the Gülen Movement.
In line with the determined purpose and scope,
the texts that are determined to contain hate speech are divided into
categories according to the nature of the discourse they adopt. The categories
of hate speech, which have been determined by making use of previous international
studies on this subject and taking into account the language and cultural
differences specific to the country, are as follows:
CATEGORIES OF HATE SPEECH
Group 1- Intolerance: (Exaggeration, imposition, distortion) Discourses containing negative
generalizations, distortions, exaggerations, and negative references to a
community based on a person’s behavior or an event (for example, 'leech, forger,
virus'... )
Group 2- Attack on rights and dignity: (cursing, insulting, humiliating) swearing directly at a group,
derogatory statements about a community (e.g. 'putschist', 'traitor', 'spy')
Group 3- Provocation to hostility,
discrimination, and violence: Discourses involving
hostile, violent expressions about a community (e.g. 'FETO, blood lobby,
treason gang')
Group 4- Provocation to commit
genocide/crimes against humanity (e.g. make a concubine,
extermination, interment..)
THE HATE SPEECHES BEING EXPOSED TO:
Targeting a community as a whole
Associating Hizmet (Movement) members with terrorism
Associating Hizmet members with the coup and the
events that took place on the day of the coup and targeting them,
Strengthening the perception of hatred and
hostility towards the members of the Hizmet movement,
Coding as a potential culprit by systematically
being cited as the cause of all problems,
Being shown to be responsible for unfavorable
economic conditions,
Creating enemies with reference to past
events,
Showing as a threat,
Identification with violence
The use of the term “congregation” as an
insult,
SCOPE OF ACTIVITY
Data collection, recording and reporting
Sharing the obtained data
Working on awareness raising.
PROJECT COORDINATION
Hate Crime Monitoring Project is coordinated
by the Brussels-based "Solidarity with Others" NGO.