TURKEY UNDER FIRE OVER LAWS BANNING INSULTS TO ‘TURKISHNESS’
By Christopher Torchia
AP
April 19, 2008
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — "Happy is he who says: ‘I am a Turk.’"
Turkey’s motto is on display in schools, hospitals and military
barracks. Schoolchildren recite it like the Pledge of Allegiance. It
covers hillsides in southeast Turkey, where the military is fighting
Kurdish separatists.
This relentlessly patriotic message, coined by Kemal Ataturk,
founder of modern Turkey, is backed up by law: a ban on insulting
"Turkishness." But it has become a serious drag on Turkey’s efforts
to get its democracy into shape for joining the European Union. The
EU says it’s a restriction on free speech that disqualifies Turkey
for membership.
On Friday, Parliament’s justice panel began debating a government
proposal to soften Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code, which has
been used to prosecute Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk and
other intellectuals.
Parliament is expected to approve the amendment as early as this
month. But critics say it’s a half-measure by a government caught
between liberal opponents of the law and nationalists who see it as
a cave-in to European interference.
Cengiz Aktar, an EU expert at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul,
doubts it will work, because at least 20 other articles in Turkey’s
penal code have "the same mentality of killing freedom of speech."
But many Turks believe even a token softening of the law rewards EU
pressure, and even threatens Turkish security.
Faruk Bal, deputy chairman of the opposition Nationalist Action Party,
says it will allow Kurdish rebels to insult the Turkish state with
impunity. His party has launched a TV ad campaign against changing
Article 301. It includes the refrain: "Wake up Turkey! It is time
for unity."
The change would cut the maximum sentence for denigrating Turkish
identity or institutions from three years in prison to two, suspended
for first-time offenders. The justice minister would have to approve
prosecutions, and Article 301 would refer to the crime of denigrating
the "Turkish nation," rather than the vague term "Turkishness."
"The government’s proposal merely tinkers with the wording of the
law, while maintaining its most problematic features," New York-based
Human Rights Watch said.
Ataturk designed his nationalist motto, "Ne mutlu Turkum diyene,"
as he sought to build a strong, secular Turkey from the ashes of the
Ottoman Empire, which united territories in Europe, Africa and the
Middle East under the banner of Islam. He largely succeeded, amid war,
slaughter and pressure from Western powers.
Nearly a century later, many Turks believe their nationhood faces
the same threats, chiefly from the Kurdish separatists, but also
from governments and pressure groups that claim the mass killings of
Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century were "genocide."
It was the genocide claim that landed Pamuk as well as fellow novelist
Elif Safak in court, and later motivated the assassination in 2007
of Hrant Dink, a Turkish Armenian.
The Turkish Justice Ministry says 1,533 people faced prosecution
under Article 301 in 2006. Some cases, including Pamuk’s, are
dismissed. Many end in acquittals. Those convicted included Dink,
the murdered journalist, and lawyer Eren Keskin, prosecuted for
insulting the armed forces.
Often, it’s not the government but nationalist individuals who start
the prosecutions, as well as the Turkish military, according to Emma
Sinclair-Webb of Human Rights Watch.
Supporters of Article 301 say some European countries, including
Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, have similar laws. But these are
hardly ever acted upon.
Another section of the penal code makes it a crime to insult state
institutions or even officials. Last year a punk rock group was
prosecuted for a song attacking Turkey’s equivalent of the high school
SAT. It was acquitted.
Even Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan isn’t immune. His
Islamic-oriented party faces a prosecutor’s efforts to ban it for
allegedly violating the secular principles crafted by Ataturk.