HATE SPEECH REPORT TOWARDS THE GÜLEN MOVEMENT IN TÜRKİYE

Towards the Gülen Movement in Türkiye:

HATE SPEECH REPORT

Prepared by Stichting Justice Square, the ¨HATE SPEECH REPORT¨ is a comprehensive study that analyzes—within the framework of documented evidence, testimonies, and international legal norms—the most extensive state-orchestrated hate policy in modern Turkish history. This report is not merely a compilation of human rights violations; it is a historical document that exposes how hate has been transformed into a state strategy and how it has been directed against the most vulnerable segments of society—women, children, members of the judiciary, and ordinary civilians.

The report demonstrates through grave cases that hate has not been confined to the Gülen Movement alone, but has also targeted Kurds, Alevis, Roma communities, LGBTI+ individuals, refugees, and diverse faith groups. In doing so, it reveals how hate in Türkiye—rooted in long-standing state practices—has transcended political boundaries and evolved into a societal reflex and a tool of identity construction.

Methodology and Sources

The report is based on an examination of incidents of hate speech occurring primarily between 2016 and 2025, including court records, witness testimonies, media archives, reports by human rights organizations, and international legal instruments. Hundreds of individual case analyses and official statistical data constitute the backbone of this study. Within this framework, the devastating effects of hate speech targeting the Gülen Movement in civilian life, prisons, detention centers, and the workplace are addressed through representative case studies.

The Institutionalization of Hate Speech as State Policy

The report establishes that hate in Türkiye has evolved beyond a social reaction into a systematically constructed state policy. The state of emergency (OHAL) declared after the failed coup attempt of 15 July 2016 marked the turning point of this transformation. Through emergency decrees issued by the Erdoğan regime, hundreds of thousands of individuals were dismissed from public service, thousands of institutions were shut down, and millions of people were labeled as potential “threats.”

As a result, hate speech moved to the center of political discourse, while the legal system, media, religious institutions, and bureaucracy became its primary carriers. To disseminate anti–Gülen Movement hate to the deepest layers of society, the Erdoğan regime structured the government and state resources as the “source,” the media as the “distributor,” the bureaucracy as the “carrier,” and the public as the “receiver.” In this way, political hate speech formed the roadmap of a process amounting to social annihilation. Through labels such as “FETÖ,” “terrorist,” and “traitor,” the social death of millions of citizens was legitimized.

This report documents how hate speech turned into a state-led “witch hunt,” how it was institutionalized, and how it ultimately undermined social peace. The cases examined are not isolated violations but evidence of a planned and systematic hate policy pursued by the Erdoğan regime. Ultimately, the victims of these policies are not only the Gülen Movement but democracy, the rule of law, and society as a whole.

Mediatized Hate: The Legitimation of Falsehood

The report also provides a detailed account of hate campaigns conducted through the media. Media outlets brought under control through RTÜK and the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) operated like a ministry of propaganda, producing and disseminating the government’s politics of hate.

The Directorate of Communications of the Presidency evolved into a structure reminiscent of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda under Nazi Germany, transforming disinformation into a tool of governance. Pro-government journalists—such as Cem Küçük, Rasim Ozan Kütahyalı, and others—became ideological carriers of hate, while the label “FETÖ member” was turned into a mechanism of collective criminalization. During this process, the media embraced the dissemination of hate as a duty.

The Silent Complicity of the Opposition

One of the report’s critical findings is that opposition parties have, at times, reproduced the same hate rhetoric. Both opposition figures and opposition-aligned media frequently employ the term “FETÖ” to stigmatize and criminalize a particular group, often with a frequency comparable to that of the Erdoğan regime. In doing so, they have normalized and internalized the hate language produced by those in power. This reality demonstrates that hate in Türkiye has evolved beyond a regime policy into a form of cultural politics.

The State’s Religious Institution: The Role of Diyanet

The Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has also played a pivotal role in disseminating this hate discourse. Through Friday sermons, public service announcements, and religiously framed statements, the Gülen Movement—declared an enemy by the regime—has been labeled as “deviant,” “traitorous,” or a source of “sedition.” Religion, instead of serving as a unifying force, has been turned into an instrument of division, while sacred texts have been repurposed to legitimize hate.

Civil Death: A Modern Mechanism of Dehumanization

Another key issue addressed in the report is the abandonment of an entire group to “civil death” as a consequence of hate speech becoming state policy. The findings under the section on “Civil Death” reflect the contemporary manifestation in Türkiye of the concept developed by Hannah Arendt in relation to totalitarian regimes. Through emergency decrees, hundreds of thousands of individuals were stripped of their professions, had their passports revoked, saw their bank accounts frozen, were barred from employment even in the private sector, and were subjected to workplace mobbing—pointing to a systematic erasure from all spheres of life.

The use of Social Security Institution (SGK) codes such as 36 and 37 against those dismissed by decree or whose institutions were closed constitutes a practice of profiling and lifelong surveillance. In this respect, it directly parallels the practice during the Nazi era of marking Jews with the “yellow Star of David” to track and publicly stigmatize them.

Consequences of Hate Policies: Torture, Violence, and Ill-Treatment

The hate discourse imposed by the Erdoğan regime has manifested in detention centers and prisons in the form of torture, ill-treatment, strip searches, insults, threats, and intimidation. In everyday social life, it has taken the form of deprivation of state resources, denial of public services, and discriminatory practices—all of which constitute criminal acts under the law.

Motivated by hate policies elevated to the level of state doctrine, public officials have committed grave crimes against humanity against members of the Gülen Movement in detention facilities and prisons. Likewise, segments of society, emboldened by the state’s hate rhetoric, have engaged in numerous acts that qualify as hate crimes.

Women and Children: The Most Vulnerable Targets of Hate

The report reveals that women and children have been particularly targeted by the regime’s hate policies. Sick, pregnant, postpartum women, or women with young children have been arrested solely due to their familial ties, handcuffed during childbirth, and forced to live with their babies under inhumane prison conditions.

Hundreds of children living with their mothers in prisons have been deprived of their rights to play, education, healthcare, and development, and have been branded as “enemies of the regime.” The punishment of women and children in this manner has become a practice of “civil death” as defined by Hannah Arendt. In this context, individuals have been stripped not only of political rights but even of their very “status as human beings.”

Conclusion: The Transformation of Hate into Political Culture and a Call to the International Conscience

The data presented in this report clearly demonstrate that hate speech in Türkiye is no longer an isolated problem or a temporary political climate, but a fully institutionalized hate regime constructed by the Erdoğan government. While the treatment of the Gülen/Hizmet Movement represents the most systematic and visible example of this regime, the roots of hate run far deeper.

In Türkiye, hate has transcended its function as a political tool and penetrated the social fabric, religious discourse, and cultural reflexes, becoming a carrier of the state’s official ideology. Millions have been deprived of their fundamental rights under the label of “terrorism”; women, children, academics, members of the judiciary, and public servants have been systematically excluded and abandoned to civil death. State institutions—including the judiciary, media, and Diyanet, which are meant to be independent—have been transformed into agents of hate reproduction.

This reality is not merely Türkiye’s internal issue; it constitutes an international human rights crisis directed against human dignity itself. The findings show that hate speech in Türkiye has crossed the threshold into hate policies, and that hate policies have reached the level of crimes against humanity.

These findings point to an urgent situation requiring action by both national and international human rights mechanisms. We therefore issue an open call to all international human rights bodies—particularly Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Council of Europe, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: be the voice of the victims of hate policies in Türkiye; bear witness to those who have been silenced.