CHANGES – FINALLY ADOPTED
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on May 01, 2008
Armenia
Early in the morning yesterday, the Parliament of Turkey adopted the
amendment to Article 301 of the Criminal Code, with a vote of 250 for
and 65 against. Only the members of the ruling party voted in favor
of the amendment which will enter into force after being ratified by
the President.
On April 29, the National Assembly held discussions till late at night,
over introducing an amendment to Article 301 envisaging punishment for
"insulting the Turkish identity". Hundreds of journalists and writers,
including Hrant Dink, Editor of "Agos" newspaper, and Orhan Pamouk,
laureate of Nobel Prize in literature, have been persecuted under
this article.
The nationalistic parliamentary opposition was against the amendment
which criminalizes the insult to the Turkish state vs. the "Turkish
identity". Any criminal case under this article will be instituted
only by the permission of the Minister of Justice, and the maximum
degree of punishment will be reduced from 3 to 2 years of imprisonment.