Racism

People carrying the larges-evert Montenegrin flag of 5,000 square meters during Independence Day celebrations in Cetinje. Photo: EFE-EPA/BORIS PEJOVIC

Turkey's foreign minister on May 29 called for collective efforts against xenophobia, racism, and Islamophobia.

Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu's remarks came in a message commemorating the victims of the deadly 1993 attack on a Turkish family by far-right extremists in the German city of Solingen.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on May 25 warned that Islamophobia was fueled by public authorities and spreading, especially in the Western countries. 

"Although westerners want to soften racism against Muslims [calling it] as Islamophobia, we know that it is enmity against Islam," Erdoğan said, speaking at the first International Media and Islamophobia Symposium.

The group responded by saying that they are exposing her hatred of the Jews

Turkey refuses to recognize any genocide its fore-bearers have committed

The Government has approved the National Strategy and associated Action Plan to prevent and combat anti-Semitism, xenophobia, radicalization and hate speech, said Alexandru Muraru, honorary advisor to the Prime Minister, special representative of the Government for the Promotion of Memory Policies, Combating Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia.

Denis Becirovic, the other lawmaker behind the proposal, said that because deputies from the main Bosnian Serb and Croat parties, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, and the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, did not back the changes, it is now time for Inzko to step in and impose a solution.

Although there is a "low presence of anti-Semitism" and only a few thousand Jews remaining in Western Balkan countries, the issue is being appropriated for use in ongoing regional political disputes, says a new report published by the International Republican Institute NGO on Thursday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slammed the rise in cultural racism against the Turks and Muslims in Europe, blaming incompetent European politicians for adding fuel to the flames in a bid to cover their failure in internal and external politics.

A tolerant and open society is based not only on the development projects undertaken, but also on the ability to reject hate speech and to condemn firmly any instance of racism or xenophobia, President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday in a message to International Romani Day celebrated on April 8.