The book “Non-discrimination in Turkey” focuses on issue areas within the broader non-discrimination framework in Turkey. It looks domestic change in Turkey regarding non-discrimination across time. The book unpacks the principle of non-discrimination and provides analysis in many issue areas like LGBTI rights, disability rights or age discrimination that rely under the framework of non-discrimination. Adopting a comprehensive approach including many areas within non-discrimination, the book will be useful for the students, scholars and researchers of international relations, political science, Middle East and Turkish studies and those interested in human rights.
Ayhan Aktar has been working on anti-minority policies in modern Turkey since 1991. In the Ottoman Empire’s final decade (in 1906), non-Muslims constituted 20% of the population; by 1927, they were reduced to 2.5% and, nowadays, they make up less than 0.02% of the population of Modern Turkey. Armenians were subjected to deportations (1915), Greeks were ‘exchanged’ (1922–1924) and Jews were forced to migrate abroad (after 1945). Like many other nation-states in the Near East, Turkey has been able to homogenize its population on religious grounds. This book is a collection of Aktar's articles about this transformation. Aktar criticises nationalist historiographies and argues "For instance, a scholar conducting research on the Jewish community during the republican period could easily come to the conclusion that only Jews were discriminated against by the Turkish state. However, this is only partially true! All non-Muslim minorities were discriminated against and their stories cannot be understood unless the Turkish state and its policies are placed at centre stage. Utilizing diplomatic correspondence in the British and US National Archives has enabled me to understand anti-minority policies as a whole and to treat the subject within a totality." This book will interest scholars and students of nationalism, minority studies and Turkish history and politics. CONTENTS Foreword Chapter 1. Debating the Armenian Massacres in the Last Ottoman Parliament, November – December 1918 Chapter 2. Organizing The Deportations and Massacres: Ottoman Bureaucracy and the Cup, 1915 – 1918 Chapter 3. Homogenizing the Nation, Turkifying the Economy: The Turkish Experience of Population Exchange Reconsidered Chapter 4. Conversion of a ‘Country’ into a ‘Fatherland’: The Case of Turkification Examined, 1923–1934 Chapter 5. “Turkification” Policies in the Early Republican Era Chapter 6. “Tax Me to the End of My Life!” Anatomy of Anti-Minority Tax Legislation, (1942 - 3) Chapter 7. Turkish Attitudes vis à vis The Zionist Project by Ayhan Aktar and Soli Özel Chapter 8. Economic Nationalism in Turkey: The Formative Years, 1912 – 1925
As Turkey is not a member of the European Union, Directives 2000/43/EC and 2000/78/EC have not been transposed or implemented. The Law on the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey (No. 6701), the anti-discrimination law adopted in 2016, prohibits direct, indirect and multiple discrimination as well as instruction to discriminate, discrimination by assumption, segregation, harassment and mobbing in the workplace. Discrimination by association is not included. The grounds covered by the Law are limited and it prohibits discrimination only on the basis of sex, race, colour, language, religion, belief, denomination, philosophical or political opinion, ethnic origin, wealth, birth, marital status, health, disability and age. Furthermore, there are anti-discrimination provisions in the Constitution and in several laws. Most notable among the laws with anti-discrimination clauses is the Law on Persons with Disabilities, which could be considered as an anti-discrimination law. However, the law prohibits discrimination solely on the ground of disability and has limited material scope. In addition, various laws, including the Labour Law, the Turkish Penal Code and the Law on National Education, have anti-discrimination clauses, but again with limited material scope. Sexual orientation is not enumerated in any of the laws, including the Law on the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey, or in the Constitution, despite the consistent efforts of human rights and LGBTI+ associations. Age is explicitly listed as a protected ground only in the Law on the Human Rights and Equality Institution of Turkey. However, as with sexual orientation, age was also recognised as a ground by the Constitutional Court. The said laws and provisions, as well as precedents set by the Constitutional Court, are not being implemented. While hatred and incitement to hatred are prohibited under the Turkish Penal Code, as noted by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the 'definition of hate crime is excessively narrow and the Criminal Code does not explicitly provide that racist and homo/transphobic motivation constitutes an aggravating circumstance'. Moreover, hate speech grounds are exhaustive and do not include ethnicity, age and sexual orientation. Besides, existing provisions are scarcely applied to cases of hate crimes or hate speech. The anti-discrimination law does not prohibit hate speech or hate crime. The Constitutional Court for the first time found a violation in a hate speech case in 2021.
Though Turkey is a land of vast ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity - home not only to Turks, Kurds and Armenians, but also, among others, Alevis, Ezidis, Assyrians, Laz, Caferis, Roma, Rum, Caucasians and Jews, the history of the state is one of severe repression of minorities in the name of nationalism. This report sets current law and practice in Turkey against the backdrop of equivalent international standards on linguistic rights of minorities; freedom of religion, thought and conscience; freedom of expression; freedom of assembly and association; political participation; property rights and anti-discrimination.
The Turkish government is urged to make a fundamental shift in its approach to education by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) in a new report. A long-standing focus on state-building has been supplemented by increasing emphasis on religious teaching. Both feature strongly in the education system in Turkey making schools a focus of discrimination. The report, Discrimination based on Colour, Ethnic Origin, Language, Religion and Belief in Turkey’s Education System, reveals evidence of discrimination of minority groups and suggests comprehensive reforms to effectively ensure equality. “The ‘national’ education system, which for decades aimed to create young Turkish nationalists, has in recent years become a vehicle for raising young religious Turkish nationalists,” says Nurcan Kaya, Turkey Coordinator of Minority Rights Group International. Religious education is compulsory from grade four in primary schools. While some information on world religions has been introduced, the emphasis remains on teaching Sunni Muslim religious practices. Children of Jewish and Christian families may apply to opt out, but the process can be cumbersome and in many schools alternatives are not provided for them. Non-Muslim students who have opted out can still find themselves having to remain in the religious instruction class or alternatively having to wander in the school corridor – making them vulnerable to taunts from pupils and even teachers. The opt out possibility is still not available to children of other minorities. Another issue is mother tongue education. In 2012, a new elective on the living languages and dialects in Turkey was introduced but due to various limitations, minorities remain marginalised “others” in the education system. Subsequent to the 2012 reform, the report monitors discrimination in the formal education system in the period of the academic year of 2014-2015. The findings are based on the field work of the Monitoring Discrimination in Education Network, an alliance of 16 organizations working in Turkey. The report compiles numerous cases of discrimination based on language, religion, ethnicity, skin colour and the level of income. “In order to bring about a fundamental solution to these problems in the education system, the government must prioritise developing an approach that sees all groups as equal and that responds to demands for rights based on such an understanding of equality,” says Kaya. The report highlights that Turkey has no anti-discrimination law or an equality commission to which victims of discrimination can apply. The existing legislation contains no effective and accessible means of judicial remedies or compensation. Therefore, many discriminatory practices are not reported to school administrations. “The entire education system is based on Turkishness. Non-Turkish groups are either not referred to or referred in a negative way,” says Kaya. “Education system has played a significant role in deepening conflict in society. The positive representation of other groups in the education system would contribute to social peace and harmony.” In order to resolve the many problems in the education system that the current approach causes, the overall aim of government education policy should be cleared of ideological references, and the protection of children’s best interests and the right to education in line with international standards should be considered its fundamental goal, says the report.
Although legal arrangements have been made against discrimination, discrimination is both explicitly and implicitly active in different parts of society and in different areas. In order to recognize, understand, and oppose these forms of discrimination, it is necessary to be a defender of human rights and to know what discrimination means.
