Spiegel Online, Germany
Sept 22 2006

Turkish Intellectuals Between Democracy and Nationalism
By Dilek Zaptcioglu in Istanbul

Turkish novelist Elif Shafak was taken to court on charges of
"insulting Turkishness." It’s a part of the Turkish penal code often
used to go after intellectuals. But do the country’s politicians have
the courage to change it?

AP
Turkish author Elif Shafak is just one of many intellectuals in
Turkey who have run afoul of Section 301.
It’s a scenario familiar to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan. Apply the criminal code to the work of a novelist, and
massive protests from the European Union about the freedom of opinion
in Turkey ensue. Indeed, Erdogan has been taking those protests to
heart and has recently been trying to change the Turkish penal code’s
notorious section 301. In comments delivered on Thursday, Erdogan
promised that the section will be deleted should a consensus be
reached in parliament.

Such a consensus is not yet in sight. Novelist Elif Shafak was taken
to court on charges of "insulting Turkishness" this week — and
acquitted for lack of evidence. So far, the most well-known victim of
section 301 has been the editor-in-chief of the Armenian weekly Agos,
Hrant Dink, who will be sentenced to six months in prison if he
"re-offends."

Section 301 of Turkey’s penal code makes "insulting Turkishness, the
Republic or the National Assembly" punishable by a prison sentence of
between six months and three years. The sentence increases threefold
when the offense is committed abroad. The EU has been demanding the
abolition of section 301 for months. Since the law went into effect
about one year ago, it has been used to press charges against at
least 82 writers, publishers, journalists and intellectuals. During
the past 15 months, numerous periodicals and books have been
confiscated, and Internet sites have been shut down, according to the
most recent report by Turkey’s Human Rights Foundation (TIHV). A
total of 15 people have been sentenced under the law. It is widely
expected that this year the European Union Commission will use its
annual progress report on Turkey’s fitness for EU membership — due
out in mid-October — as an opportunity to demand a re-drafting of
section 301.

But doing so would require a major transformation within Turkey, and
that transformation has yet to occur. Danish Amnesty International
member Elna Leth Pedersen, who monitored Shafak’s trial, believes a
"change of mentality" is needed. It won’t do for the section to be
scrapped and replaced by another, she believes.

"Many countries — including EU countries — have similar laws," says
Joost Lagendijk, a member of the European Parliament, speaking in
Istanbul on the day of Shafak’s trial. "But these laws never lead to
writers or journalists being arrested," Lagendijk adds.

Eugene Schoulgin, a representative of the PEN Club, the international
writers association, has called Shafak’s trial a "scandal" and
pointed out that hers is not the only case his organization is
keeping a watchful eye on. "There are genuine human rights violations
occurring in various countries, from EU member states to Australia,"
says Schoulgin, a Norwegian who now lives in Istanbul. He adds that
the rising number of trials in Turkey is to do with the country’s
"giant steps towards democracy," which he says are prompting strong
nationalist reactions "in certain circles."

A Nationalist Backlash

In fact, the lawyers who always appear as joint plaintiffs in section
301 trials are genuinely reactionary. They are members of the
far-right lawyers association "Hukukcular Birligi." Led by Istanbul
lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz, they are often the ones who press charges
against authors. In their eyes, sensitive topics include the massacre
committed against Armenians in 1915, the Kurdish question, the role
of the military in Turkey — and recent Turkish history in general.

For the past several years, Turkey has been undergoing a rapid
cultural transformation. Thanks to the country’s bid for EU
membership, Turkey’s past and present is being discussed more openly
and controversially than ever before. But this also entails a growing
rift between reformist forces and the rest of society. Many feel the
reforms are happening too quickly and going too far.

Formally left-wing and now liberal-minded intellectuals such as Murat
Belge, a professor of English literature, are speeding the EU reform
process in the area of culture. Today these intellectuals are no
longer as marginalized as they were 10 or 20 years ago, when they
found themselves unemployed because of their views or were struggling
to survive in small publishing houses. Now they hold teaching
positions at Istanbul’s many private universities, where they are
using their connections to organize conferences on the Armenian and
Turkish questions.

Official Turkish historiography is the main target of the criticisms
repeatedly formulated at these conferences. According to Belge,
official Turkish historiography has "achieved nothing so far besides
denying the Armenian and the Kurdish questions and falsifying
historical truths for extremely nationalist reasons." Turkey’s
liberal intellectuals make up a kind of "closed society" entertaining
close contacts to the West; their activities are often financed with
Western funds.

The result is that Turkish nationalists have a bone to pick. They’re
using section 301 as a weapon and they want to use the charges of
"insulting Turkishness" and "damaging Turkey’s reputation abroad" to
expose the activities of intellectuals and writers to the public. The
goal pursued by Turkish nationalists isn’t necessarily that of
getting writers into prison. Rather, it’s to make these writers look
like dangerous enemies of society to those Turks who haven’t read
their books.

The strategy is working. Most Turks view Kerincsiz and his right-wing
lawyers as slightly overzealous champions of a just cause. Widespread
popular support for the extreme nationalists and their struggles
against the "enemies of the people" is even pushing the social
democrat opposition in the Turkish parliament to argue against the
abolition of section 301.

Elections will be held in Turkey in the fall of 2007. Even Prime
Minister Erdogan will likely lack the courage to fully liberalize the
Turkish penal code. Right now Erdogan is smugly playing the role of
the democrat whose hands are tied. All he did on the eve of Shafak’s
trial was wish her the best of luck.

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