Since GIT - North America has come to existence as a result of our response to the inaugural declaration of GIT in France, which in turn was prompted by the arrests of, among others, Büşra Ersanlı, we thought that it would be very appropriate to start this page with an example of hate speech that was used against her. The article below was published soon after Ersanlı's arrest. Since its implied assumption about Jewish people is so clearly negative, the piece does not leave much room for any comment. There are also many other problems with the report which are about the breach of privacy, which we address separately. For now please read the news report below, assume for a moment that you are Jewish and live in Turkey. How would you feel?
To read our analysis of this news piece and the general picture, please visit:
"Ersanlı’s Love for Jewish [people]
[It has been discovered that] Büşra Ersanlı, who is supported by BDP, is the founder of the Jewish Helsinki Citizens Assembly[1]
Yeni Akit has unraveled the Ersanlı reality. According to the news report by Fatih Akkaya of Akit, the information obtained during the raid organized by the Istanbul police against the BDP Political Academy –which operates as the ideological indoctrination center for KCK-PKK terrorist organization, demonstrates the danger.
During the police operation on October 28th, a total of 50 people were taken under custody. During the police search of the premises, three blank firing guns, bullets and [terrorist] organization documents were found.
It came to light that BDP Political Academy has been founded with the orders from the head-terrorist Öcalan, in order to provide an ideologically prepared personnel for the [terrorist] organization. According to legally collected wire-tapped phone conversations, the same courses given to PKK in the rural areas were repeated in the alleged Academy. In the alleged Academy, PKK propaganda was conducted in courses with such titles as “Abdullah Öcalan’s Meeting Notes,” “History of PKK,” “Organization Discipline, City Councils,” “History of Religions.” In these courses, the head-terrorist Öcalan was recounted as a prophet, the religion of Islam and the Turkish state were insulted, and projects to found an independent Kurdistan State were devised.
Here are the courses:
Ersanlı was also teaching there
Who is Professor Emine Büşra Ersanlı?
One of the founders of Soros Foundation
Convicted with 15 years of jail, got out of prison with an amnesty
Her sister is Perinçek’s ex-wife
November 1, 2011 Tuesday 10:53
[It has been discovered that] Büşra Ersanlı, who is supported by BDP, is the founder of the Jewish Helsinki Citizens Assembly[1]
Yeni Akit has unraveled the Ersanlı reality. According to the news report by Fatih Akkaya of Akit, the information obtained during the raid organized by the Istanbul police against the BDP Political Academy –which operates as the ideological indoctrination center for KCK-PKK terrorist organization, demonstrates the danger.
During the police operation on October 28th, a total of 50 people were taken under custody. During the police search of the premises, three blank firing guns, bullets and [terrorist] organization documents were found.
It came to light that BDP Political Academy has been founded with the orders from the head-terrorist Öcalan, in order to provide an ideologically prepared personnel for the [terrorist] organization. According to legally collected wire-tapped phone conversations, the same courses given to PKK in the rural areas were repeated in the alleged Academy. In the alleged Academy, PKK propaganda was conducted in courses with such titles as “Abdullah Öcalan’s Meeting Notes,” “History of PKK,” “Organization Discipline, City Councils,” “History of Religions.” In these courses, the head-terrorist Öcalan was recounted as a prophet, the religion of Islam and the Turkish state were insulted, and projects to found an independent Kurdistan State were devised.
Here are the courses:
Some courses which have been detected to prepare upper-level executives for the KCK cadre are:
· History of Kurdistan
· History of PKK
· Abdullah Öcalan’s meeting notes
· Civilization History
· History of Religions
· History of Women and the Women’s Issues
· History of Independent Women Struggle
· Media that needs to be followed
· Organization Discipline, City Councils
· Ecological Society
· Organized Self
· Democratic Autonomy
· Confederalism Politics.
Ersanlı was also teaching there
It has been discovered that Professor Emine Büşra Ersanlı also taught in this alleged Academy. The Prosecution Office detected that Ersanlı taught one of the courses on the [terrorist] organization executive class education curriculum, “Gender.” Ersanlı taught KCK courses in Istanbul and Van Political Academies.
Who is Professor Emine Büşra Ersanlı?
The information on Professor Emine Büşra Ersanlı, who is adopted by such names as [journalist] Hasan Cemal, [or] newspapers like Cumhuriyet, is as interesting as her career. A BDP Party member, Ersanlı is a faculty member at Marmara University […].
One of the founders of Soros Foundation
It has been found out that Ersanlı is one of the founders of Helsinki Citizens Assembly, which is closely associated with George Soros, the speculator of Jewish origin. Her ex-husband Lazare Cem Behar is a Jewish Doctor at Boğaziçi University [..] in the field of Theory of Economics.
Convicted with 15 years of jail, got out of prison with an amnesty
It has been discovered that Ersanlı was arrested in 1972 because of her activities in the organization of the Turkiye Revolutionary Worker Peasant Party. In this trial, she was convicted and received a 15 year jail sentence for she was found guilty of the charges to “found and execute associations with foreign support or following a certain ideology without the government’s permission.” She was released with the amnesty of 1974. Her other ex-husband businessman Mehmet Ali Zarifoğlu was taken under custody in different dates for acting upon his membership to the TIKB (Turkiye Ihtilalci Komunistler Birligi—Revolutionary Communists Association of Turkey].
Her sister is Perinçek’s ex-wife
It has also been found out that Ersanlı’s sister Fatma Sırma Evcan is the ex-wife of the head of the Workers Party Doğu Perinçek who is arrested and is in prison while being tried as part of the Ergenekon Trials."
[1] http://www.hyd.org.tr/?sid=17.
As can be seen in the website above, Helsinki Citizens Assembly is not an organization that identifies itself as a Jewish organization. But they could very well be, and that would still not matter and certainly be irrelevant for the KCK trials and Büşra Ersanlı's being arrested as part of it. What this labeling shows us, on the other hand, is a clear effort on the part of Yeni Akit writer to associate Ersanlı with anything that can be Jewish, as if it were a bad thing. And that the author considers this as part of the "Ersanlı reality"--whatever that may mean.
The original link for the translated piece above:
[http://www.habervakti.com/?page=news_details&id=59019]
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In a long opinion piece he wrote for the Turkish daily Radikal from the prison, Ragıp Zarakolu drew attention to the boundaries of free speech (you can read an English summary of this piece on GIT - North America). One of these boundaries is drawn by statements that constitute hate speech. On this page, we are planning to expose examples of hate speech with a view to raise awareness of its existence in Turkish media and scholarship.
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As can be seen in the website above, Helsinki Citizens Assembly is not an organization that identifies itself as a Jewish organization. But they could very well be, and that would still not matter and certainly be irrelevant for the KCK trials and Büşra Ersanlı's being arrested as part of it. What this labeling shows us, on the other hand, is a clear effort on the part of Yeni Akit writer to associate Ersanlı with anything that can be Jewish, as if it were a bad thing. And that the author considers this as part of the "Ersanlı reality"--whatever that may mean.
The original link for the translated piece above:
[http://www.habervakti.com/?page=news_details&id=59019]
****************************************************************************
In a long opinion piece he wrote for the Turkish daily Radikal from the prison, Ragıp Zarakolu drew attention to the boundaries of free speech (you can read an English summary of this piece on GIT - North America). One of these boundaries is drawn by statements that constitute hate speech. On this page, we are planning to expose examples of hate speech with a view to raise awareness of its existence in Turkish media and scholarship.
Homophobic Remarks from Ankara’s long-standing and outspoken Mayor [4/11/12]
Melih Gökçek, Mayor of Ankara, responded to a question on live television with statements containing harsh homophobic remarks bordering on hate speech. In response to a (rather humorous and inherently discriminatory) question about the success of gay mayors in Europe posed by the television celebrity and program host Okan Bayulgen, Gokcek made the following statement:
"Each society has its own set of moral values" responded Gokcek. "We have our own way of life and traditions. We can't approve and live together with the gay culture in Europe. Our morals are different. Inshallah [hopefully] there won't be any gays in our Turkey and there shouldn't be."
To read the summary report in English and access the link to the video of the recording in Turkish visit Bianet here.
"Each society has its own set of moral values" responded Gokcek. "We have our own way of life and traditions. We can't approve and live together with the gay culture in Europe. Our morals are different. Inshallah [hopefully] there won't be any gays in our Turkey and there shouldn't be."
To read the summary report in English and access the link to the video of the recording in Turkish visit Bianet here.
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