They have quite creative methods in passing their message on to the rest of society. Amongst other things, they have a monthly contest called “The Racist of the Month,” in addition to a yearly contest. In this contest they “nominate” candidates to be elected on the basis of the remarks or behaviors of the nominees. And you can vote on their website.
We are now in the first month of the year, and Say Stop now is now conducting its annual survey for its Racist of the Year prize for 2010. I just looked at the candidates and saw that they were all quite prominent and it is really difficult to decide who to vote for.
Before voting for the champion, I just wanted to get the opinions of my readers. And I wished to give you the whiff of our distinguished racist garden. Here you are, the candidates for the prize for Racist of the Year:
The board of directors of the İstanbul Bar Association: Two Ergenekon suspects’ telephone conversations were read in the courtroom. According to transcripts they said to each other, “The best Kurd is a dead one.” Their lawyer defended them before the court by arguing that this statement is the personal opinion of his clients and that there is no criminal element to it. The Diyarbakir Bar Association sent a complaint to the İstanbul Bar Association, to which this lawyer is attached, and requested that the bar punish him for abusing the right to defense by trying to justify such racist remarks. The board of directors of the İstanbul Bar Association refused to impose disciplinary measures on this lawyer by saying that “the lawyer was just trying to explain his clients view and trying to prevent any misunderstanding.”
İlber Ortaylı: Professor İlber Ortaylı, who is also the director of Topkapı Palace Museum, stated that on university entrance exams students from southeastern Turkey obviously cheat and, thus, incompetent students from this region are able to enroll in quality universities across the country. Mr. Ortaylı clearly targeted Kurdish students with these remarks.
Yılmaz Özdil: Yılmaz Özdil, a columnist at the Hürriyet daily, claimed in his column dated April 14, 2010 that the act of an ultranationalist Turkish citizen who punched Ahmet Türk, then leader of the pro-Kurdish Democracy Party (DEP), during a party rally in Samsun was actually justified. Özdil reasoned as follows: “If killing these country’s children by firing at them is accepted as a democratic right, then why is beating the party leader described as racism. If land mines are democracy then why is punching fascism?” He added that “the person who descended upon Ahmet Türk’s nose like a stick of justice has just expressed the feelings of most people in this country.”
M. Ali Hansu: M. Ali Hansu, the Education Ministry’s director for the province of Bingöl, a province in eastern Anatolia, said in an opening ceremony he attended that “people who do not speak Turkish should not have the right to be Turkish citizens.” He added that non-speakers of Turkish “should not even buy bread from a bakery.”
Penguen: Weekly humor magazine Penguen, in reference to the discussion on whether there has been a shift in Turkey’s axis, portrayed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in traditional Arab clothes in caricature and added a speech bubble in which Erdogan said, “I do not wear panties under these clothes.” The Say Stop initiative thinks that with this caricature Penguen insulted Arab nations and their customs.
Cemil Çiçek: Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek, on the occasion of a groundbreaking ceremony for a high school in Yozgat, a city in Central Anatolia, made a speech and said, “We even taught Turkish to Nigerians in Nigeria, but we could not teach Turkish to the people in Hakkari and Diyarbakir.”
Turkish officials before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR): Hrant Dink, just before he was killed, had brought a case before the ECtHR arguing that his conviction in Turkey for allegedly denigrating Turkishness was a violation of his right to freedom of speech under the European Convention on Human Rights. The Turkish agents before the ECtHR argued that Dink’s remarks were similar to those of Nazi leaders, who praised national socialism. Turkish officials, with this defense, showed that they see Dink as being in the same category as Nazis.
“Kurtlar Vadisi: Pusu” scriptwriters: The trailer of the new season of the “Valley of the Wolves” TV series just started playing on one of the national TV channels. In this trailer, you can see that the EU and the US have some designs for Turkey and they relabeled certain parts of Turkey “Armenia,” “Pontus” and “Kurdistan.” In opposition to these so-called imperialist “scenarios,” the producers show their scenario for the year 2023 with an animation in which a star and crescent, resembling a Turkish flag, appears and slowly the whole map of the world turns red, implying that the whole world would fall under Turkish domination.
Menderes Yılmaz: As is known, there is an ongoing Kurdish Communities Union (KCK) case in which many Kurdish politicians, including some mayors from the Southeast, are being tried in the Diyarbakır Specially Authorized Court. When one of the accused started their defense in Kurdish, the president of the court, Menderes Yılmaz, ordered the clerk to write the following for the record: “It is seen that the accused started to make his defense in an unknown language, which is thought to be Kurdish.” The Say Stop initiative thinks that in this statement Mr. Yılmaz insulted a language spoken by millions in Turkey.
Supporters of the Bursa Soccer Club: I also wrote about this in one of my previous articles; during a soccer match supporters of the Bursa club chanted, “Armenian dogs support Beşiktaş,” in a reference to the Armenian descent of the leader of the Beşiktaş football club.
As you see we have many distinguished racist candidates vying for the annual prize, and it is really difficult to choose from among them. What do all these candidates and their “creative” remarks show us? I think racism and xenophobia are still pandemic and widespread in Turkey. I hope we will get rid of them one day -- though that day does not seem close enough. Have a good and racism-free Sunday!
