APOLOGY ORGANIZERS COULD FACE CHARGES

Hurriyet
March 4 2009
Turkey

ANKARA – Criminal proceedings can in fact be launched against
the organizers of an online campaign to apologize to Armenians for
incidents that occurred in 1915, the high criminal court in Ankara’s
Sincan disrict ruled Monday.

The court’s decision overturned an earlier ruling by the Ankara
prosecutor’s office that had rejected demands to bring criminal charges
against the organizers. Prosecutors are now free to seek the permission
of Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Å~^ahin to launch an investigation.

Campaign architect Cengiz Aktar suggested that the Justice Minister
would not green-light such an investigation, but said Å~^ahin may be
drawn in two different directions. "While the upcoming elections might
incite the minister [to issue] an investigation permit, pressure from
the United States on human rights might lead him not to," Aktar told
the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review yesterday. "Both Europe
and the United States are aware of the importance of the campaign."

Freedom of thought

In response to a petition calling for the organizers of the Internet
campaign to be penalized, the public prosecutor’s office launched
a probe in January. It ruled that there was no need for criminal
proceedings, saying that opposing views were protected as freedom of
thought in democratic societies. The petition was submitted by six
Ankara residents who claim the campaign insults the Turkish nation,
an illegal act under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, or TCK.

Launching an investigation under Article 301 requires the permission
of the Justice Ministry, which the high criminal court can now
request. Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Å~^ahin had previously stated that
the campaign was a matter of the organizers’ own discretion, saying:
"What is important for me is the approach and policy of the Republic
of Turkey."

The "I apologize" campaign was launched on Dec. 15. Though it has
drawn harsh criticism within the country, approximately 29,000 people,
including many intellectuals and journalists, have signed the petition,
which reads, in part: "My conscience does not accept the insensitivity
showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Armenians
were subjected to in 1915."

Armenia claims that up to 1.5 million Armenians were systematically
killed in 1915 under the reign of the Ottoman Empire, while Turkey
denies this, saying that any deaths were the result of civil strife
that erupted when Armenians took up arms for independence in Eastern
Anatolia.