MHP’S BAHCELI SUGGESTS TAKING 301 AMENDMENT TO REFERENDUM

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 30 2008

Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli has
suggested that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
take a planned amendment to Turkish Penal Code (TCK) Article 301,
which penalizes "insulting Turkishness," to a referendum.

Bahceli, speaking at his party’s parliamentary group meeting yesterday,
hit back at the governing AK Party over attempting to amend the
controversial article and called on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan to take the planned 301 amendment to referendum.

"Esteemed Prime Minister, if you have the courage and if you trust the
will of the Turkish nation, why don’t you ask our nation whether it
wants the values of Turkishness and the honorable history of Turkey
to be insulted," asked Bahceli.

After years of foot dragging, the government finally submitted a
proposal to Parliament on April 7 to amend Article 301, which has
been used in the prosecution of several intellectuals, journalists
and activists for "insulting Turkishness."

Under the proposed changed, the approval of the justice minister
will be necessary for a prosecutor to proceed with a 301-related
investigation. Other changes in the draft include making it a crime to
insult the "Turkish nation" instead of the ambiguous term "Turkishness"
and lowering the maximum jail sentence for such an insult to two
years from three.

"If the prime minister refrains from taking the 301 amendment to a
referendum, then I say to him for the last time: Do not pave the path
for insulting the values of the Turkish nation. Keep in mind that a
single wrong step you take will translate to a breaking point for our
nation. Turkish nationalists will never forget what has been done so
far," Bahceli noted.

He also claimed the government will amend a series of articles
enshrined in the TCK and the Counter-terrorism Act after Article
301. "The AK Party is responsible for the insult campaigns begun
against the values of the Turkish nation. Who is disturbed by Article
301? Those who wish to label Turks as perpetrators of genocide against
Armenians," he said.