Former Ankara mayor targets minorities in controversial tweet
Melih Gökçek, the former mayor of Ankara and a prominent politician, has targeted Turkey’s ethnic and religious minorities, claiming that millions of Greeks, Armenians and Jews are posing as Muslim Turks and that their ethnicity should be indicated on national IDs.
Drawing on a 1914 census from the Ottoman Empire, Gökçek claimed that there are 15,554,847 non-Muslims, including Greeks, Armenians and Jews currently living in Turkey. This assertion challenges the long-held belief that Turkey’s population is predominantly Muslim.
Gökçek’s comments have raised concerns about their potential to stoke ethnic and religious tensions in a country known for its diverse demographic makeup.
Gökçek, who served as Ankara’s mayor from 1994 until his resignation in 2017 under pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has a history of making provocative statements and promoting conspiracy theories. His latest remarks are seen by many as part of a broader strategy to appeal to nationalist sentiment.
“Turkey is believed to be 99 percent Muslim. However, there are millions of Greeks, Armenians, Jews and Sabbateans among us,” Gökçek tweeted. He called for legislative measures to ensure that individuals’ true ethnic identities are recorded on their identity cards. “Just as we recognize Syrians, Afghans or Turkmens by their ethnicity and identity, we have the right to know the true identities of these individuals.”
The pro-government radical Islamist newspaper Yeni Akit, known for targeting political opponents and ethnic and religious minorities, published an article supporting Gökçek’s claims. The article stated that these individuals hold significant positions in politics, commerce and the arts and often share their views on TV, influencing the Turkish public under the guise of being Muslim Turks. It emphasized that this issue should be seen as a matter of national survival for the Turkish Republic and that Gökçek’s call represents the voice of the Turkish nation.
Gökçek’s tweet, which suggests that ethnic and religious minorities should be more visibly identified, has been widely criticized for potentially inciting division. Critics argue that such rhetoric could exacerbate existing prejudices and lead to further marginalization of these communities.
Gökçek’s comments come at a time when refugees and minorities have become the groups most targeted by negative political rhetoric and hate speech.
On June 30 a series of violent attacks on Syrian refugees broke out in Kayseri, where locals targeted their homes, workplaces and vehicles. The unrest quickly spread to other cities. In Gaziantep on the Syrian border, groups chanted nationalist slogans while vandalizing Syrian-owned vehicles and businesses. In response to the violence against Syrians in Turkey, protests broke out in Syria’s northwestern regions controlled by Turkey earlier this month. Protesters attacked Turkish trucks and pulled down Turkish flags.
Discriminatory discourse and hate speech have a long history in Turkey. Since the foundation of the modern Turkish Republic, hate speech has been used in political campaigns. Armenians, for example, have been portrayed as enemies and associated with violence, terrorism and massacres (in the context of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict). Greeks were targeted following escalating tensions between Greece and Turkey over drilling and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean. Jews have also been a target of hate speech, particularly after Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Some Turkish media outlets have in recent years become an important instrument in demonizing migrants and refugee groups, in particular Syrian refugees, by circulating hateful political rhetoric and discriminatory remarks.
However, hate crime as a legal term did not appear on the public agenda until the murder of Armenian journalist and activist Hrant Dink in 2007. Since the incident, hate crime has been used and discussed more frequently in the Turkish media and by the general public.
A report by the Stockholm Center for Freedom titled “Hate Speech and Hate Crimes Against Syrian Refugees in Turkey” delves into the history of xenophobic and discriminatory speech in the country. It explains how refugees and minorities have become the groups most targeted by negative political rhetoric and hate speech. The report also examines the communication tools used to spread hate speech, the inadequate integration policies and the reasons behind the normalization of hate crimes. It includes reported cases of hate speech and hate crimes against Syrian refugees and concludes with recommendations for the Turkish government, international organizations, EU institutions, civil society, rights groups and media outlets.
