Turkish media promote Antisemitism and Kurdophobia

Why is the Turkish media attacking an Israeli-Kurdish Zoom panel, defaming panelists, and actively promoting anti-Semitic and anti-Kurdish sentiments through deliberate misinformation and misleading reporting?

Since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, the Middle East has experienced constant turmoil. Iran has increased its direct and indirect attacks on Israel through its Shia and Sunni Islamist proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and al-Hashd al-Shaabi. The Turkish state, while firmly condemning Israel for its retaliatory measures against the Iran-led alliance, has exploited these escalating conflicts and launched full-scale assaults on the Kurdish civilians and infrastructure in Rojava (Northern Syria). The Turkish objectives continue to render a peaceful life of ordinary people impossible and curb the ability of self-administration to regulate and manage the basic energy and security-related requirements of diverse ethnic and religious communities in Rojava. The additional objective of the Turkish state is to completely eradicate the cultural identity and accomplishments that the Kurds have achieved since the defeat of ISIS. In the light of these developments, the Kurdish and Israeli academics, journalists, intellectuals, and community representatives speak at a Zoom panel entitled “Israeli-Kurdish Alliance for a New Middle East: Future Risks and Opportunities” on November 14, 2024, addressing their shared experiences of attacks as well as the common threats and concerns that jeopardize the lives of their communities. The Turkish media extensively covered this Zoom meeting. However, these reports are misleading since they are based on manufactured facts and incorrect information, distorting the truth and defaming panelists, all of which showed deep-rooted Turkish hostility toward the Jewish and Kurdish populations.

The Kurdistani Party (PAKURD), a diasporic entity operating in the online space, organizes this Zoom event. It points out in its statement that both the Kurdish and Jewish communities are becoming fully aware of shared threats to their survival posed by Iranian and Turkish governments. It highlighted that Hamas and the Iranian alliance’s attacks on Israel, together with Turkish aggressive attacks on the Kurdish population in Rojava and Turkey, necessitate urgent mutual solidarity between the Jewish and Kurdish people. The organizer raises urgent questions about how Israel could support a friendly, sovereign Kurdish entity, ensuring Kurdish rights, Israel’s security, and regional stability, and points out the potential for Israeli-Kurdish collaboration in the Middle East and beyond. In response to this online event, the Tuirkish media outlets generated an unprecedented level of anti-Jewish and anti-Kurdish sentiments. It disseminates misinformation and misleading statements based on fabricated facts, all of which serve as fuel for the spread of antisemitism, which is characterized by hostility, intolerance, and racism against Jews, as well as Kurdophobia, which is characterized by hostility, intolerance, and racism against Kurds. To put it differently, this event once again reveals the Turkish media’s deeply rooted antisemitism and Kurdophobia, as well as its pioneering role in the potential genocidal policy of the Turkish state against the Kurds in particular.

The Turkish media has consistently promoted ultranationalist sentiments through the fabrication of evidence, with the aim of urging the elites of the Turkish state to implement harsh measures against Kurds and other dissidents. These behaviors have been prevalent since the Turkish state’s foundation in 1923. The Turkish media, far from being neutral, objective, and ethnical, has used false information to reference specific events and groups, framing them as “threats to Turkish nationalism, state, and interests” and creating headlines about their potential targets for the state elites. The Turkish state elites responded to these fabricated reports by developing specific and severe policies.

The vicious role of Turkish media outlets is also evident in PAKURD’s Zoom panel, which brings together highly qualified and esteemed expert academics, journalists, intellectuals, and community leaders. They have reported this event using incorrect, and distorted evidence, as well as imaginary facts that have no connection to reality. However, they accurately depict the correct view and reality of the prevalent antisemitism and anti-Kurdish racism in Turkey. The Turkish media’s hostile rhetoric and coverage target Kurdish and Jewish solidarity and aspirations in the Middle East. For instance, the liberal and left-wing online news outlet Odatv titled its reporting on this panel with the headline, “The response to Bahçeli’s initiative came from Jerusalem—let’s establish a Kurdish state together with Israel.” Devlet Bahceli, the head of the ultranationalist Turkish movement and coalition members of the Turkish regime, heralded that the Turkish state changed its view to make peace with the Kurds if the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, calls on his organization to abandon arms and end its claims. While the Turkish elites portray this call as a peace initiative, the Kurdish site views it as a deceptive maneuver, reminiscent of the denial policy of the Turkish regime under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. This policy aims to eradicate Kurdish claims, marginalizing Kurdish representation and voices in the face of the newly restructuring Middle East.

Another pro-government online portal, haber7com, published an identical headline asserting that “MOSSAD extensions are underway, revealing the truth: Let’s establish Kurdistan for Israel.” The media smeared the panelists with fabricated facts, portraying Professor Ofra Bengio, a highly respected expert scholar on the Middle Eastern region and Kurdish issue, alongside imprisoned Kurdish politicians like Selahattin Demirtaş, Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala, other Kurdish politicians and European academics at a Kurdish conference in the European Parliament. This news outlet presents the participants as “terrorists.”

Aydinlik, another online news portal affiliated with coalition members of the Turkish government, published a piece entitled “Israel and Second Israelists Meet: A Roadmap for Second Israel is Being Drawn.” Similarly, Haber- global news portal, associated with Islamist and ultranationalist Turkish groups, referred to the panel under the title “the dark alliance is at work; the Jewish Kurdish state is the ultimate agenda.” Furthermore, the pro-government IHA news agency quoted the president of the ultranationalist association, who declared that “Israel has a dream of Kurdistan—little Israel.” Several other Turkish media outlets, representing a range of divergent ideological and political Islamist, liberal, left-, and right-wing orientations and affiliations, have also reported on the panel, using headlines that were based on fabricated facts and imagination, yet accurately reflected their antisemitic and anti-Kurdish sentiments. Unsurprisingly, the Turkish media outlets unite in their antisemitic and anti-Kurdish stance, which demonizes Israel and criminalizes the Kurds.

The founder and former chair of PAKURD, as well as one of the panelists, Ibrahim Halil Baran, refuted these fabricated and misleading claims made by the Turkish media on the panel. He pointed out that the Turkish media cannot tolerate Israeli and Kurdish intellectuals coming together in a panel to discuss the relationships and concerns of their communities and share their thoughts with each other.

Turkish media outlets deliberately misinterpret this Zoom panel with the Israeli-Kurdish speakers, defame the panelists, and spread disinformation, all of which expose Turkey’s intolerance and hatred toward the Jewish and Kurdish presence in the Middle East. These antisemitic and anti-Kurdish sentiments, which are pervasive in Turkish society and cultivated by the Turkish authorities, pose an immediate threat to the Jewish and Kurdish populations. However, the Israeli and Kurdish elites and people in the Middle East may reflect on this shared threat and enhance their communication, potentially leading to collaboration against such hostile attacks. Finally, President-elect Donald J. Trump may critically view the Turkish media’s antisemitic and anti-Kurdish rhetoric and misconceptions, which mirror the Turkish government’s stance, as a threat to Israel’s security and the existence of the Kurdish population in the Middle East. This threat is consistent with the intentions and objectives of the Turkish government under President Recep T. Erdoğan, aiming to further destabilize the Middle East, jeopardize Israel’s security, commit genocide against the Kurds, and stymie the regional peace that the president-elect has pledged.