TURKISH LEADER RESISTS NIXING INSULT LAW
By Jan Sliva, Associated Press Writer

Los Angeles Times, CA
Oct 4 2007

STRASBOURG, France — Turkey’s new president called Wednesday for
changes to a law that makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity —
legislation the European Union wants the country to scrap.

Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk and slain ethnic Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink are among those prosecuted under the
controversial law. But Turkey, though aspiring to join the EU, so
far has resisted pressure to strike it from its legal code.

"We know there are problems with regard to Article 301. There’s
still room for improvement and there are changes to be enacted in the
period ahead," President Abdullah Gul told reporters at the Council
of Europe. "I support the idea of Article 301 to change."

Gul has said the law damages Turkey’s image by portraying it as a
country where intellectuals are jailed for speaking their opinion. On
Wednesday, he lamented an "unfair perception" that people were
imprisoned because of the law.

"No one is going to prison for expressing their view freely,"
he told with parliamentarians from the human rights watchdog’s 47
member states.

Gul gave no timeframe for changes to the law but said the government
is committed to improving its rights record — an issue that has
stymied Turkey’s bid to join the 27-nation EU.

Gul, formerly Turkey’s foreign minister, said his country is more
tolerant and democratic today than five years ago, when the country
launched widespread social and judicial reforms.

"All forms of discrimination are banned. Legal and constitutional
guarantees on the right to association and assembly are reinforced.

Cultural and religious rights have been upgraded," he said.

Gul’s visit the Strasbourg-based council is his first to western Europe
since being elected president in August after months of controversy
over his candidacy to a post traditionally held by a secularist. Gul
is from an Islamist-rooted party.

Also Wednesday, Gul warned against any territorial division of Iraq
as proposed by the U.S. Senate.

"One should not fall into the illusion that the current problems can
be overcome by the partition of Iraq," he said. "This would be the
worst scenario for the people of Iraq and the whole region."