Law on Hate Crimes Long Overdue

The International Conference on Hate Crimes on 16/17 April in Istanbul was organized in cooperation of the Social Change Association with the Initiative 'Say No to Racism and Nationalism'. The topics of the conference covered murders of LGBT individuals as well as the events of 1915, when, so many Armenians and also an increasing number of Turks say, millions of Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire were forcibly sent into exile. Many people starved, die of exhaustion or were killed by gangs.

"The role of the media in hate speech" and "International experiences in the struggle against hate crimes" were the topics on the agenda of the conference on Saturday (16 April).

The session on the "role of the media in hate speech" was lead by Prof. Yasemin İnceoğlu from the Galatasaray University Faculty of Communication and joined by Radikal newspaper writer Oral Çalışlar, Taraf newspaper writer Ümit Kıvanç and Ragıp Duran, reporter in Turkey for the Libération newspaper.

'Education system leads to nationalism'

Journalist Kıvanç made a note on the educations system in Turkey. "The education system in Turkey makes people unreasonable and nationalistic. It is easy to spread hate in an environment that lacks reason and rationality. Groups that were murdered were always compared to something else previous to the genocide. But in our cases it was not like that, it was carried out directly. We need an antidote to obstruct hate", Kıvanç said.

Journalist Çalışlar argued that journalist Soner Yalçın and the Oda TV website took the lead in spreading anti-Semitism in Turkey. "The award of Yılmaz Özdil and Oda TV with the annual journalism prize by the Turkish Journalists Association showed that it is not easy to abolish hate crimes".

"Moreover, Uğur Dündar and Ertuğrul Özkök were deprived of freedom of the press. This weakens the people's ability to get an insight into the incidents. The media take a stance in different camps and it becomes confusing who is defending what. The people's awareness is being shaken", Çalışlar said.

"The media reflects the existing violence"

Reporter Duran indicated, "It is the duty of the media to be a mirror and a vehicle, thus situations that do not correspond to real life are not shown in the media. The media reflects the violence and hate that exist in society".

"Hate crimes convey message to society"

Journalist and writer Nayat Karaköse lead through the second session entitled "International experiences in the struggle against hate crimes". Tankut Soykan from the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE), Robert O. Trestan from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Geert Ates from UNITED and Benjamin Abtan from the European Grassroots Anti-Racist Movement (EGAM) contributed to the session with their speeches.

Soykan from the OSCE warned, "Hate crime needs a motive for crime and prejudice. This sort of crimes increase when there is not struggle against hate crimes. The kind of violence will intensify. Hate crimes convey a certain message to society".

Soykan said that the OSCE is giving importance to the struggle against hate crimes and that the organization issues an annual monitoring report accordingly. "This report is a guideline for states that enact a law on hate crimes. At the same time, we give training in this aspect to non-governmental organizations", Soykan explained.

"First the law then education"

ADL representative Trestan informed the audience about the activities of his organization. "The ADL is an NGO that has been struggling against discrimination and hate crimes in the USA since 1913. (...) Hate crimes may be different since the laws of each country are different".

"Hate crimes are generally committed in our houses where we feel safe, at places of worship and locations like cemeteries. The NGOs in Turkey have to combine their power because there is not law on hate crimes in Turkey. After enforcing the relevant law, judges, prosecutors and police staff have to be trained so that the law is going to be implemented. The law on hate crimes must be prepared in a way that the rights of every citizen in the country are going to be protected" (AS/EÖ)