TURKEY GIVES IN ON FREE SPEECH BUT CUTS ARMY TIES WITH PARIS
By Mark Beunderman
EUobserver.com, Belgium
Nov 16 2006
In a move to curry favour with the EU, Turkey has said it will quickly
change a notorious article of its penal code curbing free speech – but
at the same time, Ankara has put its ties with France under further
strain by suspending military cooperation following a dispute over
the Armenian genocide.
Turkish officials on Wednesday (15 November) announced they will work
towards amending the notorious article 301 of the penal code which
penalises insulting "Turkishness" before EU leaders meet for a 14-15
December summit meeting, which is set to be dominated by a debate on
the fate of Ankara’s embattled EU accession process.
Newswires cite Turkish officials as saying the country’s ruling AKP
party hopes to have a parliamentary vote on the issue "in the first
week of December," just ahead of the EU leaders’ meeting.
Revision of article 301 is seen as a symbolically important move,
with a critical European Commission report on Turkey’s accession
process earlier this month highlighting the article as contributing
to a "climate of self-censorship in the country."
The article has been used to bring charges against various
intellectuals or journalists including Nobel Prize winner Orham Pamuk,
with important parts of Turkish civil society also eager to get rid
of it.
But while the announced concession on free speech could take some of
the criticism on Turkey away at the December summit, one important
EU player – France – on Wednesday saw its tense relations with Ankara
further deteriorate as a Turkish general announced that military ties
with Paris will be suspended.
"Relations with France in the military field have been suspended,"
general Ilker Basbug said according to press reports, adding the move
is a protest against pending French legislation which would penalise
the denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide.
The new French bill, adopted by the French National Assembly but
still waiting for approval from the Senate, makes it a crime to deny
that Armenians suffered genocide by the Ottoman Turks, with Ankara
describing the bill immediately after adoption in October as a
"severe blow" to French-Turkish relations.
Ankara denies that the mass killings of Armenians during World War
I constituted a genocide.
The row is escalating just as Paris is defining its position on whether
or not to suspend Turkey’s EU accession talks over the Cyprus issue,
with Brussels and EU capitals pressing Ankara to open its ports and
airports to traffic from Cyprus before the December summit.
Ankara’s continuing failure to open up to shipping from Cyprus –
and EU member which Ankara does not recognise – could jeopardise the
accession negotiations, with member states currently debating whether
the talks should be fully or partially frozen.
Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul said on Wednesday that his
country is not ready to compromise over the issue, stating "We won’t
bow to blackmail, in the same way that we did not bow to blackmail
in the past."
The Finnish EU presidency is currently engaged in intense diplomatic
efforts to save the Turkey talks, proposing in a trade-off plan that
the EU lift the isolation of Turkish Cypriots in the North of the
island in return for Turkey allowing trade from Cyprus.