Nationalists And Hate Speech

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) seems to be focusing its entire discourse on opposing the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). To witness this, you might get the impression that the HDP is in power and leading the country.
This had started before the PKK took up arms again. The nationalists said they would not support anything backed by the HDP. As a result, the ruling AK Party managed to get its candidate elected as the speaker of Parliament, which is stuck, even though opposition parties have the majority, which would enable them to pass any law, to initiate any investigation, and so on, if they act together.

We have witnessed the nationalists' enmity toward the HDP grow every day. They have even called on the Constitutional Court to close down the pro-Kurdish party. It is obvious that they do not want to discuss any aspect of the Kurdish question; they want to identify the HDP with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is a great injustice to the pro-Kurdish party.

I personally do not like to see a political party, which has a key position in Parliament, use all of its energy to attack another opposition party.

Obviously, they will not have anything positive to say about the Kurdish question, about the EU, or about minorities, etc. These are all problematic issues for the party and their electorate. However, some of their latest discourse resembles hate speech and has started to adopt quite a threatening tone.

As Today's Zaman reported yesterday, Devlet Bahçeli, the chairperson of the MHP, even uttered these words quite recently: “Those pathetic people who relax in their summer homes in İzmir or Marmaris, who refused to vote for the MHP to counter the [ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party)] but who instead have opened up the way for the HDP to enter Parliament, those without honor who live in Bosporus mansions, who sip their whisky and who voted for the HDP... You all can go and form a coalition with the HDP.”

As if this was not enough, one of Bahçeli's consultants said on a TV program that the party “has a list of 3,000 of these people without honor,” in an obvious threat to intellectuals, opinion makers and the like.

A political party has criminalized, stigmatized and demonized another party and those who support them. Do not forget that HDP headquarters and election campaign offices were attacked perhaps 200 times by those who used a hand gesture symbolizing a wolf's head to symbolize affiliation with the MHP. Their most recent words have the potential to provoke new attacks on the HDP and its supporters.

I have read in news reports that a group of human rights advocates have brought a complaint before prosecutors, saying that the MHP's words targeting the HDP constitute hate speech and incite people to hatred.

We know that cases have been brought against Selahattin Demirtaş after he was targeted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who claimed that Demirtaş's statements had played a role in inciting violence during the Kobani protests.

Do you think that prosecutors will apply the same criteria to Bahçeli that they used for Demirtaş? Do you think that they will look at his and his colleagues' words to see if they have the potential to incite hatred, or will they simply turn a blind eye?
We will see…

ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ (Cihan/Today's Zaman)