European Court of Human Rights sentences Turkey to a monetary fine of EUR 12,000

Panorama.am
12:12 21/05/2010

Society

USA citizen Norma Cox was repeatedly expelled from Turkey in the
1980s because she was seen as a "danger to the national security"
due to her religious activities. The European Court of Human Rights
decreed that the entry ban interfered with the right to freedom of
expression and convicted Turkey.

The European Court of Human Rights considered that the ban on
re-entering Turkey imposed on the applicant on account of her previous
conversations with students and colleagues constituted an interference
with her rights under Article 10, disregarding the fact that the right
to freedom of expression was guaranteed without distinction between
nationals and foreigners, thus, sentenced Turkey to a monetary fine
of ~@ 12,000 in compensation, Milliyet reported.

Having worked as a lecturer at two Turkish universities during the
1980s, she was expelled and banned from re-entering the country by
order of the Ministry of the Interior in 1986 on account of statements
she had made before students and colleagues on Kurdish and Armenian
issues. After returning to Turkey later, she was arrested in 1989 while
distributing leaflets protesting against the film The Last Temptation
of Christ, and subsequently expelled again. When leaving Turkey after
a visit in 1996, an entry was made in her passport stating that she
was banned from entering. She has been unable to return to Turkey
since then.