The U.S. State Department just issued its 2017 report on International Religious Freedom in about 200 countries, including Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. This week, I will focus my attention on the section on Turkey.
In general, all religious groups that are not Sunni Muslim suffer from discrimination and persecution in Turkey. Alevis, who constitute over a quarter of Turkey’s population of 81 million, are viewed by the state as “Heterodox Muslims,” whose houses of worship are not recognized. Anti-Semitic articles vilifying Jews are frequently published in Turkish newspaper. President Erdogan constantly provokes the public by his Anti-Israel rhetoric.
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“Anti-Semitic articles vilifying Jews are frequently published in Turkish newspaper. President Erdogan constantly provokes the public by his Anti-Israel rhetoric.”
It certainly seems that the author of this article regards being anti-Jewish, as well as anti-Israel (let me remind him that this happens to be the very same Israel which has supplied Armenia’s mortal enemy, Azerbaijan, with over five billion dollars worth of highly sophisticated military weapons that are being used to kill precious Armenian soldiers) as much more offensive than being anti-Armenian or anti-Kurdish. In his article, he mentions nothing about the vilification of Turkey’s larger Armenian population as well as its much larger Kurdish population, both of which are vilified a lot more frequently by “President” Erdogan and his Turkish newspapers than the Jews are.