About Us

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.