WILL TURKEY MAKE ANY CHANGES IN ARTICLE 301 BECAUSE OF THE PROSPECT OF THE EU INTEGRATION?

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.04.2008 GMT+04:00

Mentioning the Armenian Genocide, as well as the Genocides of the
Pontiac Greeks, Assyrians, Kurds, and which is not less important,
in the "disrespect" to the founder of the modern Turkey Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk are in one word described as "Insult to Turkishness".

The leading party of Turkey Justice and Development has come up with
a suggestion to changing the 301 Article of the Turkish Penal Code,
according to which those who are accused of "insult to Turkishness",
are sentenced to a 3-year imprisonment. In the revised version of
expression "insult to Turkishness" is changed into "insult to the
Turkish Nation", and the maximum period of imprisonment is 2 years
instead of 3, which gives the chance of changing the imprisonment
with conditional release.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ One of the terms of the Article, which presupposes
a bigger penalty in case the convicted has committed the given crime
within the borders of Turkey, has been completely excluded from the
Article. Another major amendment is that from now to start a criminal
case the permission of the President of the country is needed. While
gathering evidence the Office of Public Prosecutor must be guided
by the appropriate decisions of the European Court of Human Rights
and the European Convention of Human Rights. The accusation must be
based on the appearance of the convicted on the whole, and not on
the separate words and expression only.

Article 301 perhaps is one of the very few ones in the existing
legislations in the in the entire world, which is strongly against
the freedom of speech. Bill of Rights, which respects the freedom and
speech and says that a human may say whatever he thinks is right to
say, may be considered the opposition of Article 301. But Article 301,
in some sense, is exceptional, since those who insult the nation will
be sentenced to imprisonment, while this is the nation which refuses
the Armenian Genocide, as well as the Genocides of the Pontiac Greeks,
Assyrians, and Kurds.

Europe is seriously concerned with the existence of Article 301 in
Turkey. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis
published the article "the modern democratic needs and the progress
should be protected by progressive measure" in Turkish magazines
Turkish Daily News and Radikal on April 1.

The main issue discussed in the article is the problem of freedom
and speech and Article 301. The Secretary General reminded that the
laureate the Nobel Prize writer Orhan Pamuk and the Editor-in-Chief
of the Armenian-Turkish magazine "Agos" Hrant Dink have been brought
to criminal responsibility.

"The role of the Council of Europe is to help the member countries
to help to fulfill their responsibilities in the sphere of human
rights and democratic standards adopted by Europe. I think that the
Turkish society and the democracy are mature enough to flourish without
Article 301 and other restrictions of freedom. I also think that this
is the best way to protect the inheritance of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,
the founder of modern Turkey. He understood himself that the modern
democratic needs and progress may not be reached by out-dated methods,"
writes Terry Davis.

With Article 301 many writers and historians, who make comments on
mass killings in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, are being chased. The
annual report of the European Commission, published in November, calls
on Ankara to respect the freedom of speech and says that many people
were chased in 2006 and 2005." European Commissioner for Enlargement,
Ollie Rehn advised the EU not to continue the negotiations with Turkey
in the sphere of human rights unless Article 301 is amended.

He also emphasized that Article 301 has a negative influence on the
Armenian – Turkish relationship.

Meanwhile, several Turkish lawyers think that amendments suggested
by the government, carry "redecorating" character and they are not
sufficient for Turkey to become a European country. As the lawyer
of the family of Hrant Dink thinks, the amendments aren’t of very
serious character. "Even if we change the Article, we cannot change
the phenomenon of racism and discrimination. I think that neither
the Turkish Nation, nor the Turkish government need this Article,
"he mentioned. Another lawyer thinks that in the revised version of
the Article only words are changed, the sense it contains is still
the same.

It is quite possible that the amendments are realized.

In this case one question rises: will Orhan Pamuk, Taner Akcam and
many others be able to come back to their motherland without any fear
of being imprisoned, or simply shot like Hrant Dink?