ANKARA: Cicek may have been right

Turkish Daily News , Turkey
Sept 23 2006

Cicek may have been right
Saturday, September 23, 2006

Justice Minister Cicek had insisted that we be patient, arguing, ‘The
judiciary will fine-tune itself.’ Afterwards, Elif ªafak was found
not guilty. Now the Supreme Court of Appeals will have its say. If it
goes along with the decision, we will have passed a critical
threshold. Cicek will have been proven as right. The only thing I’m
worried about is the trials of the not-so-famous people.

Mehmet Ali Birand

I was interviewing Justice Minister Cemil Cicek for Kriter
magazine, which will be released with Radikal daily on Monday. Cicek
was constantly making the same argument.

"Everyone is so impatient. Just wait a while and you’ll see the
judiciary fine-tuning itself. If you take a look at the decisions
made up until now, you’ll see that important steps were taken on this
matter. You can’t provide a clear definition on everything laws
describe as a crime. These are defined through court decisions. We
can’t pass a law every time we face a problem."

After an Istanbul court found Elif ªafak not guilty, Cicek called
to say," Didn’t I say so?"

He is right.

He told me.

If the Supreme Court of Appeals approves the decision, the justice
minister will be proven right.

However, the trial we are talking about is for Elif ªafak, a famous
writer. The entire world was watching what the decision would be.
More importantly, most of Turkey was waiting to see what would
happen.

What about the trials of people we’ve never heard of? Some of them
are being convicted and suffering hardship.

The judiciary finding its own solutions to problems is fine, but do
we need to make ourselves suffer so much for progress?

301 needs to change for our sake:

There’s something I don’t agree with concerning Cicek’s argument.
The minister constantly argues that Turkey is being pressured by the
European Union to change Turkish Penal Code (TCK) Article 301.

Yes, the EU has taken several initiatives against this article.
However, there is one thing the justice minister cannot see, and that
is the fact that the EU’s opposition to Article 301 is just a
reflection of the domestic reaction.

It is not the EU but part of Turkey that opposes Article 301.

In other words, we are against Article 301.

If the article is to be changed, it won’t be for the EU but so that
the people of this country can live freely and utilize their rights
to the fullest.

Kerincsiz and Co. lost:

I had written about my belief that Kemal Kerincsiz is the best
propaganda artist this county has ever had. I still hold this
opinion. He again attracted all the attention at the trial of ªafak.
He and a few of his friends were able to do something that no party
could. He succeeded in mobilizing the groups that are against
Turkey’s EU membership. I don’t share his opinions, but still you
need to give him credit for what he has done. He’s a one-man show.

He knows which cases to follow and what news to pursue. He knows
how to organize his team. He knows what to say to galvanize support.
He knows how to act in front of the cameras. Consequently, he is
always in the headlines.

However, we must also admit the fact that our media played a
tremendous role in making him famous. If we had just ignored his
antics, no one would have ever heard his name.

Despite all their efforts, the poor results they have achieved
speak for themselves.

Whenever they created a fuss, no matter what they tried to prevent,
they failed. They were only able to attract the attention of the
local and international media. They failed on the Armenian
conference, the Orhan Pamuk case and the ªafak case.

Kerincsiz and his friends may run for Parliament from the far-right
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the next elections; however, no
matter what they do they can’t say, "I proudly represented my country
in the world."

Let’s keep watching the shows of Kerincsiz and Co.

If the AKP had done what the CHP is doing…

You must have read it in yesterday’s newspapers. Opposition
Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies took a very weird stance
when Parliament’s General Assembly was discussing the "definition of
minorities and education of foreigners" clause in the Law on Private
Schools, as part of the 9th EU Harmonization Package. The CHP
deputies provoked Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies by
arguing, "If this proposal becomes law, Turkey will be training
priests," and were able to suspend voting on the matter.

The foreign, interior affairs, justice and education ministries
worked on this proposal for months and it was pushed aside with just
a single sentence. The most important part of this affair is the fact
that this was done by the CHP, which believes it epitomizes
secularism.

If the AKP had done what the CHP did, we would have been furious.
We would have accused them of trying to take Turkey back to the Dark
Ages.

What’s happening with the CHP? Some CHP deputies don’t seem to be
aware of the fact that they are harming the country’s interests
merely in order to play politics.

–Boundary_(ID_evSwcOEDa+epWSfMZcKXcg)- –