TURKEY’S NEW TOP JUDGE IN EUROPE: 301 MUST BE AMENDED
The New Anatolian
Jan 24 2008
Turkey
Prof. Dr. Ayse Isil Karakas, the newly elected Turkish judge of the
European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), said Wednesday that Article
301 of the Turkish Penal Code restricts freedom of expression and
must be amended.
Article 301 of the penal code makes it a crime to insult Turkish
identity.
In an interview after being elected as an ECHR judge, Dr. Karakas said
"as European Union (EU) reports indicate, there are problems related
to the implementation of Article 301."
"When Article 301 was first legislated, authorities said that its
implementation should be observed. The implementation did not yield
desired results. There are lots of cases filed under Article 301. As a
jurist, I believe that Article 301 must be amended," Dr. Karakas noted.
Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin has already announced the governm
ent wikll present an amendment to the parliam ent "soon" that will
soften the law which makes denigrating Turkish identity, or insulting
the country’s institutions, a crime punishable by up to three years
in prison.
The European Union has said it does not fit within the bloc’s standards
of free speech, and has been one of the stumbling blocks to Turkish
accession since talks began in 2005.
Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk was among the highest profile
Turks snared by the law, when he commented on the mass killings of
Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century.
The headscarf issue
Asked about the headscarf ban at universities and government plan
to lift the restrictions Prof. Karakas said "currently, I cannot
elaborate on this issue. The ECHR already published a ruling on the
matter. New cases will be debated based on the ECHR’s opinion."
"Every country in the ECHR system has an obligation to adapt its
domestic laws to those of Europe. As Turkey adjusts its laws, the
number of cases filed against it will drop," Dr. Karakas stressed.
Asked about the reasons why Turkey is one of the European countries
that is the target of complaints and law suits, Prof. Karakas
stressed that the problem in Turkey is often caused because of the
interpretation of domestic laws.
In reference to the individual freedoms and sovereignty right of
the state, Dr. Karakas said she has been working on the issue for
several years.
"The laws related to human rights in Europe are different than
international laws and limit the sovereignty rights of the state. The
sovereignty of the state were restricted as the freedom and rights
of individuals expanded after the 1950s," Prof. Karakas stressed.
Prof. Karakas said she is extremely pleased and honored to have been
elected as judge to the ECHR. "This is one of the highest positions
that a legal expert can work at," she stressed. Prof. Karakas said
that she was not surprised for having been elected as an ECHR judge as
she believes she carried the qualifications required by that position.
Prof. Karakas is Turkey’s first woman judge to serve at the ECHR. She
will live in Strasbourg during her tenure as an ECHR judge. She is
presently a professor of law at Galatasaray University.