‘Hate crime legislation a must to combat hate crimes’

“There is hate crime legislation in the United States and in European Union countries. In Turkey, there are neither any detailed investigations nor any hate crime legislation,” said Cengiz Alğan, who heads the steering committee of the Association for Social Change.

The association is currently working on the draft law and getting prepared to submit it to the political parties at the new Parliament.

“We hope the ruling party, which has a big mandate -- 50 percent support from voters as a result of the June 12 election -- will take an initiative to act on it,” Alğan said.

However, he added that there are other problems in Turkey when it comes to hate crimes in addition to a lack of legislation.

“Hate crimes have deep roots in Turkey from state elements such as the gendarmerie and police and the military,” he said.

Answering our questions, he elaborated on the issue.

Could you first tell me how the Association for Social Change came about?

Following Hrant Dink's murder in 2007, we decided to establish a civilian initiative. We came together with a group of writers, journalists and academics who decided that hate crimes had reached dramatic dimensions in Turkey; these crimes were organized and they had a dimension of racism. We formed a group of activists under the name of “Dur De!” [“Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism”]. We put out a call to all people to come against racism and nationalism. At first we were only about seven to ten people but we have grown. Now we have 33,000 followers on Facebook. We have 3,500 subscribers to our mailing list; some of whom follow our bulletins and participate during our meetings and protests. The Association for Social Change is an organization that has professional staff. Both Dur De! and the association have the same founders and support each other.

You said that some hate crimes in Turkey share characteristics and there are indications that they are organized. Would you give examples of that?

For example, there have been a number of murders of Christian priests. Just prior to those murders, we would see slander campaigns in the media regarding Christian missionary activities in Turkey. One of those cases is the prominent Malatya Zirve Publishing House murders [of 2007 when three people who sold Christian literature were brutally killed]. Prior to the murders, both in the local and national media, there was a serious slander campaign about Christian missionaries in Turkey. This has been publically discussed in detail by Orhan Kemal Cengiz, one of the lawyers for the victims' families. When he first took the case, long before the name of Ergenekon [a clandestine criminal network accused of working to topple the government] was spelled out, he told us that he had said, “This seems to be the work of Turkish Gladio.” That conviction was based on various facts: The 2006 murder of Father Santoro in Trabzon, then the murder of Hrant Dink and two months later the Zirve murders seemed to have been connected. As the investigation unfolded serious suspicions that secret networks nested within the Turkish gendarmerie and ultranationalists were linked to those murders.

Common motives of ultra-nationalism and hatred based on ethnicity or religion

As we also follow the cases, we see that the hit men seem to have common motives: ultra-nationalism and hatred based on ethnicity or religion.

Definitely, we know from court documents that Ogün Samast, Dink's murderer, did not even know Dink's name properly. He just knew that he was an Armenian. But it was absurd that a 17-year-old would come all the way from Trabzon to İstanbul to kill somebody that he did not know much about. There was already enmity in society against Armenians and since the first 2005 Armenian conference in Turkey -- which sparked great controversy because it included the Armenian side of arguments related to the issue of genocide -- this enmity was pumped up and then Dink was murdered. Regarding the Father Santoro murder, he was threatened previously by some people who are now defendants in the Dink murder case. Those people had beaten him, almost fatally, even prior to his murder. There are even more of those human rights violations in that regard involving even more murders but the Dink murder was a breaking point.

Why is that?

Because anything related to the Armenian issue is a topic that has appropriate grounds to incite hatred in Turkey.

What does your work on the project “Hate Crimes in National Press: 10 Years, 10 Examples” tell us?

Starting from 2008, we conducted a retrospective media scan involving 20 national newspapers that made up 80 percent of newspaper circulation in the country. We came up with 30,000 examples of news that can be categorized as inciting hatred. Then we made an initial shortlist of 5,000 news pieces and then [shortlisted this to] 200. For our publication, we used 10 examples for the book. We found hate speech in the media regarding ethnic origin and race, nationality, sexual identity and sexual orientation, religion and belief, political tendencies, ownership, physical disabilities, educational status and societal status. The most dramatic result was that out of 5,000 news pieces, 21 percent could be categorized as hate speech and 79 percent as hate crimes. Out of that 79 percent of hate crimes, 47 percent were based on ethnicity. The media mostly used ethnicity in inciting hatred.

I remember a similar and more recent study by the Hrant Dink Foundation that said Kurds and Armenians were the most targeted groups in the press in this regard, and that Armenians were among the most targeted group according to “animosity,” which is a hate speech category. Greeks, Christians in general and Jews were also often the subjects of news stories or columns that contained hate speech.

Hate crimes and hate speeches are distinct. But there is no doubt that they are linked in practice. Hate speech creates the risk of hate crime.

Hate crimes can be revealed with serious, extensive investigations

What makes a crime a hate crime?

According to international norms, there must first be a criminal offense which is committed, and that the crime was committed with a biased motive. It is this biased motive, this prejudice, that distinguishes hate crimes from ordinary crimes. The crime might be damage to property, murder, assault, etc. Just as with hate speech, the individuals or groups who are the target of hate crimes share some characteristic -- such as like their ethnicity, national identity, religious beliefs and practices. There needs to be serious and extensive investigations into those crimes in order to prove that there was a prejudice that led to the crime. There have been some proven cases in the United States following Sept. 11 that some crimes were motivated by prejudices against Muslims living in the country. There is hate crime legislation in the United States and in European Union countries. In Turkey, there are neither any detailed investigations nor hate crime legislation.

Why do you think there aren't any detailed investigations into such crimes in Turkey, is it because of lack of legislation?

Lack of legislation is an important factor, but as I mentioned before, hate crimes have deep reaching roots in Turkey from state elements, like the gendarmerie, the police and the military. Lawyers for victims' families from the Zirve murder case found out that the Zirve murders were committed in Malatya while [former 1st Army Commander Gen.] Hurşit Tolon [who is now a suspect in the Ergenekon case] was giving anti-missionary briefings and speeches in the same city. There is also the example of a vigilante campaign in Selendi, Manisa where about 70 Roma were forced to leave last year. There are so many things to do in Turkey regarding hate speech and hate crimes but we first need a legislation to define what constitutes a hate crime.

Is there willingness in the Turkish Parliament to take steps in that regard?

I can say that the current government is more open to such initiatives but currently there is no work on hate crime legislation in the Parliament. Although there have been some unprecedented court cases in which Articles 215 and 216 of the Turkish Penal Code [TCK] -- relating to “inciting hatred” and the “praising an act of crime” -- were properly used. However, there is a need for a narrowed down and clear approach to the issue of hate crimes with new hate crime legislation. This is a topic which concerns a wide segment of the society.

‘Another example is the refusal to rent apartments to Kurds'

Could you give examples as to how it does so?

Not all attitudes of hate result in hate crimes and lead to murder. There might be some criminal offenses which can be considered hate crimes. For example, a person with a physical disability desires to rent an apartment but needs the property owner to have an appropriate ramp built in order to provide easy access to the building. If the owner refuses to rent the apartment to that person, the owner's motives might be in question. Another example is the refusal to rent apartments to Kurds. Both rejections deserve an investigation of motives and prejudices behind them.

What stage are you at in preparing a hate crime draft law?

We have been in consultation with experts from the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] and ADL [Anti-Defamation League]. We have examined many cases in that regard. Turkish lawyers are currently working on the text of the legislation and we hope to complete it by the end of the year. Last year there were two suggestions made to Parliament. One deputy asked for an expansion of Article 216 and another deputy said that the murder of Hrant Dink was a hate crime and there should be hate crime legislation in Turkey. There are no other suggestions or bills in the Parliament regarding hate crimes. IHOP [Human Rights Joint Platform, based in Ankara] worked on a draft law and submitted it to Parliament but it was an anti-discrimination bill.

What is the difference between approaches by the United States and European countries to hate speech?

Americans have a broad definition regarding freedom of speech and they are not pro-restriction. In Europe, there are serious restrictions to freedom of speech. Looking at the situation in Turkey, the media has a big role in that regard. There needs to be stricter monitoring in regards to what the media does to contribute to hate speech and hate crimes. One of the regulations of RTÜK [Radio and Television Supreme Council] says that there should be no broadcasts inciting hatred among people. However, this rule is not enforced. Soon, we will start to send out regular and frequent bulletins showing bad examples in the media. We know that there are a lot of people in the Turkish media who are sensitive about the issue so we expect their support. We also have a section on our website for “Racist of the Month.” Unfortunately, most of the time it is writers from the media who are selected for this list.

What is the situation in terms of hate speech in the Turkish media since the murder of Hrant Dink?

During this period hate language is no longer used outright in headlines but it does appear in captions and columns.

---

‘We hope the ruling party will take the initiative in pushing hate crime legislation'

What are you going to do during your campaign for the acceptance of such a draft bill in Parliament?

We will meet with representatives from each political party. We hope the ruling party, which has a big mandate -- 50 percent support from voters as a result of the June 12 general elections -- will take the initiative to act on it.

Why are the victims of hate crimes silent?

They usually are silent not only in Turkey but all over the world. They are usually afraid of being further stigmatized if they speak up. They prefer to stay in hiding. When lawyers went to Selendi to talk with the victims about what happened, they had a hard time finding people who would speak about the events. We have launched a project in that regard.

What is it?

We are trying to form a coalition or platform for the victims of hate crimes and those who work on the issue of hate crimes. There are some special groups working on the issue, for example, LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] groups, or some groups with Islamic sensitivities. We are holding meetings across the country in the last two years in order to bring more organizations together to work on the hate crime legislation. We have to work together because all of us suffer from discrimination. We have another Internet site Nefretme.org [Do not hate] – where organizations that work on human rights, discrimination and hate crimes can come together. We will have a festival with those groups on Nov. 19-20.

Any other projects?

We will have a monitoring team comprised of jurists to investigate hate crimes where they happen. They will have an investigation of the issue and provide legal support for the victims of hate crimes. We also plan to have a hotline for victims of hate crimes. We already receive calls from people. We found out that a Kurdish Armenian citizen from Turkey was subjected to hate crime at a government office but despite his efforts to seek justice, he was not able to obtain it. Now his case is at the European Court of Human Rights. If the Turkish state has been found guilty in that case, we will pay for dues as a nation. We would like to provide support services for victims of such crimes. Our goal first and foremost is to introduce hate crimes legislation. Eventually, we would like to map out the situation of hate crimes in Turkey.

---

Cengiz Alğan

Formerly an English teacher, Cengiz Alğan is now translating books and heads the steering committee of the Association for Social Change, which was established in February 2009. He has been active in civil society. In 2002, he was one of the founders of the “Savaşa Hayır Koalisyonu” (“No to War Coalition” now known as “Global Peace and Justice Coalition”) which was established against the war in Iraq.