Fall 2017 JPI

eginning of the JDP rule in 2002, 19 the words uttered by President Erdogan managed to unify the
very divided population Turkey for the first time in years. According to various polls, around 17
percent of Turkish citizens, from many different political affiliations, support granting citizenship to
Syrian asylum seekers. 20 In a survey conducted among JDP voters, most of them strongly stated their
disappointment in the President’s decision. Most of the concerns they expressed were about the lack
of patriotism of Syrians. A middle-aged male voter stated, “I don’t want them to become citizens. I
vote for the JDP but I do not want this to happen…Syrians have failed to defend their own country
and ran away.” A male teacher, who defined his political views as “close to the rulers” uttered a similar
argument, “I do not think it is right to give away the citizenship of an honorable nation to a people
that have escaped war.” Another male voter, aged 23, followed the same line of thought, “They have
their own country. They should go and take it back. There is a war, but it’s because of their leader.
Was it easy for us to take back this country? We had to fight for it.” Apart from the patriotism
argument, this man said he believes the problem has a cultural component too, “I feel very
uncomfortable. There are fights everywhere. They are aggressive. They do not even know what to
swim in, we are afraid to go to parks. Their culture, everything they have is different.” 21 Multiple
petitions on change.org were simultaneously started against the decision, all arguing similar points.
One of these petitions, called “We do not want Syrians to become citizens, this is not racism, it is
standing up for our homeland” claimed that, “The qualified population of Syria stayed in Syria,
defended their country and died for it. The ones we have here are those who are devoid of patriotism
with no courage to fight…how dare you give away our soil, which was fought for by our founding
fathers, to those who cannot even defend their own country?” 22
Another petition, said “We do not want Syrians to be granted Turkish citizenship!” and has
gained 315,000 supporters. 23 Though there were petitions in support of the decision as well, they were
rare and had few supporters. In all of the content on change.org by people from Turkey about Syrian
refugees, there were over 50 petitions that were anti-Syrian and only two that supported the
naturalization of Syrian asylum seekers. Moreover, in other petitions whose concerns were completely
unrelated to the Syrian crisis, remarks were still made about both the “cowardice” and the
“aggressiveness” of Syrians.
The representations of Syrian asylum-seekers in the press did not improve the public
perception either. In the last three years, Syrian asylum seekers have continuously been represented in
the Turkish press as aggressors and criminals. 24 According to the data presented by the Media Watch
on Hate Speech project, hate speech against Syrian asylum seekers has been rapidly increasing. Since
April 2015, Syrians have regularly been one of the five groups targeted most by hate speech in Turkish
media, a bias that existed only sporadically for Syrians prior to 2013. 25 Furthermore, the two main
19 Emre Erdogan, "Turkey: Divided We Stand" in Turkey: Divided We Stand | The German Marshall Fund of the United States. April 12, 2016.
Accessed December 15, 2016. http://www.gmfus.org/publications/turkey-divided-we-stand.
20 Selin Girit, "Suriyelilere vatandaşlığa neden karşı çıkılıyor?" in BBC Türkçe. July 04, 2016. Accessed December 17, 2016.
http://www.bbc.com/turkce/turkiye/2016/07/160704_suriyelilere_vatandaslik.
21 Kevin Doyle, "Suriyelilere vatandaşlık: AKP seçmeni ne diyor?" in BBC Türkçe. July 12, 2016. Accessed December 17, 2016.
http://www.bbc.com/turkce/haberler-turkiye-36780544.
22 Çağrı Kayıkçı, "Cumhurbaşkanı: Suriyelilere vatandaşlık verilmesini istemiyoruz, bu ırkçılık değil vatanına sahip çıkma!" in Change.org. July 2016.
Accessed December 20, 2016. https://www.change.org/p/cumhurbaşkanı-suriyelilere-vatandaşlık-verilmesini-istemiyoruz-bu-ırkçılık-değil-vatanınasahip-çıkma
23 Mehmet Berke, in "Suriyelilerin T.C Vatandaşlığına Hayır! #SuriyelilerinTCvatandaşlığınaHAYIR." Change.org. July 2016. Accessed December 20,
2016. https://www.change.org/p/suriyelilerin-t-c-vatandaşlığına-hayır-suriyelilerintcvatandaşlığınahayir.
24 Ali Ekber Ertürk, "Misafirler (!) suç makinesi gibi" in Sözcü Gazetesi. May 15, 2016. Accessed December 19, 2016.
http://www.sozcu.com.tr/2016/gundem/misafirler-suc-makinesi-1230634/.
25 Zeynep Arslan, Pınar Ensari, and Funda Tekin, "Medyada Nefret Söylemi | Zeynep Arslan & Pınar Ensari & Funda Tekin." Interview by Buğra
Barçın and Burak Demiryakan. 405, September 10, 2016. Accessed December 14, 2016. http://dortyuzbes.com/medyada-nefret-soylemi-zeynep-
JPI Fall 2017, pg. 24