EUbusiness (press release), UK
Turkish court overturns academics’ acquittal
13 September 2007, 22:21 CET
(ANKARA) – A Turkish appeals court on Thursday overturned the
acquittal of two academics who put out a government-sponsored report
urging greater rights for minority groups such as Kurds, opening the
way for their possible re-trial for sedition.
The court ruled against the acquittal, saying the October 2004 report
by professors Baskin Oran and Ibrahim Kaboglu constituted a threat to
the state.
"Creation and recognition of a new minority… would endanger the
unitary state and the nation’s indivisibility," the appeals court said
in its verdict, carried by the Anatolia news agency.
Ankara recognizes only the Greek, Armenian and Jewish communities as
religious minorities under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, the founding
accord of modern-day Turkey.
The court also objected to the report’s recommendation that people be
allowed to identify themselves with different ethnic roots along with
their Turkish citizenship.
"With this recommendation, the report has stepped over the boundaries
of criticism and freedom of thought, and its accusatory content
borders on a threat to social peace," it added.
The court said both professors should be convicted of inciting racial
hatred.
The Ankara court that acquitted Oran and Kaboglu of sedition last year
said they were protected by free-speech laws.
The two men were members of the Human Rights Advisory Board, a body
attached to the prime minister’s office which penned the controversial
report.
The report was never published and was disowned by the government amid
charges by nationalists groups that it was treasonous.
According to excerpts leaked to the press at the time, the report
maintained that Turkey’s understanding of minority rights had fallen
behind universal norms and proposed far-reaching amendments to the
constitution and related laws.
It described as "paranoia" widespread concerns that equal cultural
rights for minorities could lead to the country’s break-up, fuelled by
a bloody Kurdish rebellion in the southeast in the 1980s and 1990s.
Minority rights are a thorny issue in Turkey’s bid to join the
European Union, as is the prosecution of writers and intellectuals for
peaceful expression of opinion.
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