TURKISH FM DOWNPLAYS PENAL CODE CHAPTER ON INSULT OF TURKISH NATION

Baltic News Service
February 23, 2009 Monday 3:06 PM EET

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said in Vilnius on Friday that
the provisions of Turkey’s Penal Code stipulating punishment for
insulting the Turkish nation should not be given prominence. He spoke
at a meeting with students of the Vilnius University in response to
a question about the compatibility of the Penal Code chapter with
declared loyalty to European values.

The minister noted that the article had been amended last year and
now stipulated that charges under the article could only be brought
with prior consent of the justice minister. Asked whether the changes
were not just cosmetic, Babacan said: "We are not perfect." The
minister also said that the Justice and Development Party he is a
member of was against any restriction of liberties, including that
of expression of thoughts. Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code
stipulates imprisonment for insulting Turkey, its state institutions
or the Turkish nation. Earlier version of the article also envisaged
punishment for offending "Turkishism", a concept revised into "Turkish
nation" on April 30 2008. Furthermore, maximum imprisonment term was
curtailed from three to two years, with a necessity to get approval
of the justice minister for bringing charges under the article. Suits
under the article have been filed, among others, against Nobel Prize
winner Orhan Pamuk amd Armenian-origin Turkish journalist Hrant
Dink who was assassinated by radical Turkish nationalists in early
2007. Vilnius newsroom, +370 5 2058511, politika@bns.lt