'Us vs. Them': Stigma, discrimination, social exclusion and human rights violations in Erdoğan’s Turkey

ABSTRACT

This study highlights the experiences of Turkish asylum seekers who have been persecuted, victimized, stigmatized, labeled, discriminated against, prosecuted, segregated, and targeted following the Turkish government crackdown after the failed coup attempt in July 2016 and settled in the United States, Canada, and European countries. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, field notes, and documentation, conducted, and subsequently analyzed using the principles of Transcendental Phenomenological Analysis. After examining the most frequently repeated concepts in the interviews, the following three themes emerged: 1) labeling, 2) targeting, and 3) social pressure and psychological status. This study showed the depths of the psychological pressure, discrimination, torture, and humiliation that detained and jailed participants who were excluded from society endured. The paper ends with several recommendations for Turkey to rejoin the community of nations protecting, fulfilling, and respecting human rights.

KEYWORDS:

• Gülen Movement
• Coup d’état
• human rights violations
• discrimination
• labeling
• stigmatization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Gülen Movement or ‘Hizmet Movement’ is a transnational faith-based civil society group of persons, essentially Sunni Muslims (hereafter supporters), in Turkey but also elsewhere, who intend to follow the inspirational teachings and writings of Fethullah Gülen, self-exiled in the United States in Pennsylvania since 1999 (International Association for Human Rights Advocacy in Geneva2021). It has established hundreds of educational institutions, as well as media outlets, dialogue platforms, and charities (Park 2008) and empowers its adherents through a system of solidarity and collaboration (Ergil 2012). Some critics also argued that the Gülen Movement has pursued an agenda that is revolutionary because it has aimed at an almost total transformation of the state and society (Başkan 2022).

2. After the failed July 15 coup attempt, the Gülen Movement was declared a 'terrorist organization' and branded as ‘FETÖ (Fethullahçı Terör Örgütü, Fethullahist Terrorist Organization)’ by the Erdoğan's one-man regime.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Köksal Avincan

Köksal Avincan is a Kurdish scholar in exile and a master’s student in the Human Rights Program of Friedrich–Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. He served as a research assistant at Yildiz Technical University Istanbul, Turkey, from 2014 to 2016. In addition, he contributed as an editorial assistant to a book project entitled Human Rights in Turkey: Assaults on Human Dignity and published a book chapter entitled Right to Education: Challenges and Issues Under the Justice and Development Party Era; in this volume, Springer published in December 2020. During his master’s studies, he was awarded a scholarship by DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst). His current research focuses on the nexus between artificial intelligence and human rights and business and human rights.

Hasan Aydin

Hasan Aydin is a human rights activist and a Professor of Multicultural Education in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Culture at Florida Gulf Coast University. His scholarship focuses on multicultural education, bilingual education, the Kurdish language, and cultural rights, human rights, social justice, diversity and equity in education, educating refugee students, citizenship education in a global context, and international education. He is the author of several books, published numerous articles, and has had many conference presentations. Dr. Aydin is co-editor (with Winston Langley) of Human Rights in Turkey: Assaults on Human Dignity, published by Springer Press.

Evren Ersoy

Evren Ersoy received his undergraduate degree from Marmara University, Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, in 2005. He held his master’s degree from Fatih University Social Sciences Institute, Department of Psychological Counseling, in 2013. He was a research assistant at Yildiz Technical University from 2013 to 2017. His research interests focus on gifted education, bullying, depression, and communication skills for gifted children. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and made many conference presentations.