Countering Effects of the “FETO” Label Against the Hizmet People Living in Canada

The victims of hate speech can suffer devastating effects. If a group is labelled as deviant, dangerous, or inferior through a political campaign, serious consequences can occur, even up to crimes against humanity and genocide.

In recent years, the Turkish government under President Erdogan has increasingly oppressed the Hizmet Movement, a transnational social and religious movement inspired by the teachings of Fethullah Gülen. Hate speech against the movement has been a significant part of this purge, and its negative impacts have extended beyond Turkey’s borders.

The term “FETO” has played a crucial role in this oppression, seeking to label the movement as a terrorist group despite the lack of any credible evidence indicating any violent act of the movement. Many individuals have fled to Canada and other Western countries to escape this oppression, but unfortunately, the effects of the hate speech have followed them in various ways.

The purpose of this campaign is to ensure the prevention of this specific hate speech through legal, administrative, and social means and to raise awareness about its devastating impacts.