Report against Turkish hate speech directed at Armenians

The Hague, 27 November 2020 – The Federation of Armenian Organisations in the Netherlands (FAON) has lodged a police report against a number of recent anti-Armenian messages on social media by Turkish and Azerbaijani users, as well as the Grey Wolves, calling for hate, discrimination, and violence.

The reported messages, in whole or in part, posted on Facebook and Instagram, express countless anti-Armenian sentiments that go against Dutch law and cross the boundaries of free speech. The FAON was surprised that such utterances were tolerated on, for instance, Facebook, even after they had been reported to the social media platform. By reporting this to the police, the FAON is drawing attention to the fact that such hate speech, often perpetrated by the Grey Wolves, threatens to become mainstream.

These messages grew in number especially in recent months during the armed conflict, in which Armenia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan were involved, resulting in even tenser relations.

In many of the messages, references are made to the Armenian Genocide, which is denied by Turkey and many Turks and Azerbaijanis in the Netherlands. This was also the case several weeks ago when Grey Wolves in Almelo went door to door on a Sunday morning delivering flyers in mailboxes in which the Armenian Genocide is talked about as a "lie." There is a large Armenian community in Almelo, many of them descendants of victims of the genocide, for whom this naturally caused much pain and anxiety.

To note, there is international scholarly consensus on the history and facts of the Armenian Genocide. The Dutch parliament unanimously recognized the Armenian Genocide in 2004 (Rouvoet Motion), reconfirming it in several later motions, including in 2015 and 2018.

Unfortunately, such messages, statements, and acts occur frequently. An instigating factor is the way in which the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan speak about Armenians. According to the FAON, the international community falls short of reacting to this. This summer alone, President Erdogan said that he would "finish the job of his grandfathers," but was not called out for it by the international community.

Hate speech in both Turkey and Azerbaijan, as well as here in the Netherlands, is thus becoming more and more common. The FAON calls on the Dutch government to no longer remain silent in the face of these types of utterances.

Without properly condemning such calls to hate and violence, the relations between Armenians, on the one hand, and Turks and Azerbaijanis, on the other, both here and there, cannot be peaceful.