“Don’t Write As You Please”

Stop Racism and Nationalism Platform (Irkçılığa ve Milliyetçiliğe DurDe Platformu) is to file a complaint against columnist Yılmaz Özdil for using hate speech in one of his articles.

Leaving his post in Hürriyet newspaper, Özdil’s employment to Sözcü newspaper was advertised with a billboard that said “Write as you please again, Yılmaz”. 

On October 10, Özdil wrote the following on Syrial refugee in his column at Sözcü newspaper: 

“We will make them eat, we will make them drink, we will put money on their pocket, we will treat them for free at hospitals, we will give them residence permits, we will give them working permits…They will open an office in Izmir, they will start a company in Istanbul if they please, they will beg by the street lights if they don’t feel like working, they will punch the windows of those who don’t give them money…Our empire [President Erdoğan] will say they spend 4.5 billion dollars, our minister will say they spent 3.5 billion dollars, we will never know how much we really spent…Syrian refugees will have an awesome life and laze around, while Turkish Mehmet [referring to the soldiers] will go to the military to save their country?” 

The platform released a statement, claiming that Özdil used hate speech towards Syrian refugees in his article:

"Özdil claimed that Syrian refugees, a group whose status is yet to be recognized by the Turkish government and considered as cheap labor and forced to work like slaves, were ‘having an awesome life’ and ‘lazing around’. Especially subjected to racist assaults in the past summer, Syrian refugees were once more targeted by Özdil." (NV/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.