PanARMENIAN.Net

EAFJD: article 301 amendment is nothing but manipulation of words
03.05.2008 14:56 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On Wednesday, April 30, 2008, the Turkish Parliament
adopted the AKP bill which `amends’ the disturbing article 301 that
penalizes freedom of expression in Turkey. The amendment, which
consists only of replacing the crime of `insulting Turkishness’ with
that of `insulting the Turkish nation,’ was adopted by 250 votes for
and 65 against. In addition, prosecutions will now have to be
pre-approved by the Ministry of Justice and the maximum penalty will
be reduced from three to two years imprisonment.

For several years now, article 301, in its initial form, has been
widely invoked to prosecute any author of dissident opinions on
Turkish taboos such as the Armenian Genocide and its acknowledgment,
the Kurdish issue or the occupation of Cyprus. A segment of the
Turkish public opinion considers that the charges against journalist
Hrant Dink, at that time, for his article led to his tragic
assassination in January 2007.

Throughout Europe and even in Turkey, a number of entities have
denounced this parody of reform and have demanded a complete abolition
of article 301 and other clauses.

The general view is that the `reform’ adopted will not change anything
with respect to the critical situation regarding freedom of expression
in Turkey and intellectuals will still be prosecuted. Indeed, the
Turkish Minister of Justice intervened during the debates in
Parliament to make clear that `with this law, there is no question of
letting people freely insult the `Turkish identity’.

`This so-called reform is a joke’, declared Hilda Tchoboian, the
chairperson of the European Armenian Federation. `It curiously
resembles the manipulation of article 305, which remained absolutely
identical in its punitive clauses, but from which the Turkish
Parliament just removed the statement of motives that cited the
Armenian Genocide and the occupation of Cyprus,’ she explained.

`The European Union should not let itself be anaesthetized by this
gross manipulation of words,’ stated Hilda Tchoboian.

The European Armenian Federation reminds that, in the hope of
significant reform, the report on Turkey introduced by the MEP from
EPP group (CDA – Christian Democrat – Netherlands), Ria Oomen-Ruijten,
and adopted on April 21st 2008, used for the second consecutive year a
complacent and flattering tone on the situation, however critical, of
Human Rights in Turkey.

The Federation takes note, with admiration, of the official
declaration in Turkey by two intellectuals – Eren Keskin and Erdogan
Aydin, affirming and recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

`When we see the courage of these persons, we cannot accept that MEPs
betray them by accepting this official trickery. The Parliament should
also not accept `the omerta’ (code of silence) imposed by Ankara on
the Genocide in the report that will be adopted in plenary session in
the coming weeks,’ concluded Hilda Tchoboian.