FREER SPEECH: IN TURKEY, DEMOCRACY IS A WORK IN PROGRESS

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
January 29, 2008 Tuesday
Pennsylvania

One sign of a democratic society is its tolerance of free speech. By
this standard, Turkey isn’t fully democratic despite its booming
economy, gleaming skyscrapers, educated citizens and increasingly
liberal sensibilities.

The biggest obstacle to the Muslim country’s inclusion in the European
Union is its hostility to free expression by its own academics and
artists. For decades, Turkish writers and intellectuals who expressed
opinions out of sync with the prevailing nationalistic orthodoxy have
been prosecuted under a vague statute called Article 301.

Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish writer who won the Nobel Prize for literature
last year, was prosecuted under Article 301 but not convicted. His
"crime" consisted of acknowledging as true the heartbreaking events
that led to the birth of the nation he loves.

Any mention of Turkey’s complicity in the Armenian massacre is usually
enough to generate a charge of "insulting Turkishness."

Dozens of Turkey’s most esteemed artists and intellectuals have been
prosecuted under the law for such offenses since 1951.

Questioning the actions of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s founder,
is still a crime under 301, but there are growing indications that
the government is willing to weaken the law if it leads to European
acceptance.

Because Turkey’s citizens are as defensive about their past as their
government is, the process of intellectual liberalization will be
a slow one. Still, the journey to a more vibrant democracy where
freedom of speech is respected has begun in the pivotal country that
straddles the fault line between East and West.