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EDITORIAL: TURKISH LAW ON 'INSULTS' AN INSULT TO TURKISHNESS
San Antonio Express, TX
Feb 6 2007
Sometimes an end can signal a beginning.
Such should be the case with the recent assassination of Hrant Dink.
Dink, an Armenian Turk, was shot to death last month outside the
Istanbul offices of his bilingual newspaper, Agos.
Many suspect his death is connected to his outspoken references to a
painful event in Turkey's history: the 1915 mass killing of Armenians
by Ottoman forces.
Armenians call the slaughter genocide, while Turkish nationalists
deny the label.
Turkey has a sorry record of accusing citizens who refer to the
killing of Armenians of violating Article 301 of the criminal code.
The offense? Insulting Turkishness.
Orhan Pamuk, the winner of last year's Nobel Prize for literature,
went on trial in 2005, and last year, novelist Elif Shafak was charged
when a character in her novel referred to the event as genocide.
Pamuk's charges were dropped, and Shafak was acquitted.
Dink, convicted in 2005, was not so lucky.
Shortly after Dink's death, columnist Ertugrul Ozkok, in the Turkish
newspaper Hurriyet, urged an end to the century-old warring between
Armenians and Turks.
"People need to stop accusing each other of being traitors to the
nation, of being this and being that. And on the other side, people
have to stop labeling those who express their love for country and flag
'racists fascists.'"
Some of that unity was seen during Dink's funeral, as thousands
marched holding signs reading "We are all Armenians."
Turkey is facing international pressure to repudiate the law.
It should, because it's the right thing to do. If the European Union
aspirant hopes to gain entry into the international bloc, it must
fix its atrocious record on free speech.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/edito rials/stories/MYSA020607.01O.Turkey2ed.c148a2.html
San Antonio Express, TX
Feb 6 2007
Sometimes an end can signal a beginning.
Such should be the case with the recent assassination of Hrant Dink.
Dink, an Armenian Turk, was shot to death last month outside the
Istanbul offices of his bilingual newspaper, Agos.
Many suspect his death is connected to his outspoken references to a
painful event in Turkey's history: the 1915 mass killing of Armenians
by Ottoman forces.
Armenians call the slaughter genocide, while Turkish nationalists
deny the label.
Turkey has a sorry record of accusing citizens who refer to the
killing of Armenians of violating Article 301 of the criminal code.
The offense? Insulting Turkishness.
Orhan Pamuk, the winner of last year's Nobel Prize for literature,
went on trial in 2005, and last year, novelist Elif Shafak was charged
when a character in her novel referred to the event as genocide.
Pamuk's charges were dropped, and Shafak was acquitted.
Dink, convicted in 2005, was not so lucky.
Shortly after Dink's death, columnist Ertugrul Ozkok, in the Turkish
newspaper Hurriyet, urged an end to the century-old warring between
Armenians and Turks.
"People need to stop accusing each other of being traitors to the
nation, of being this and being that. And on the other side, people
have to stop labeling those who express their love for country and flag
'racists fascists.'"
Some of that unity was seen during Dink's funeral, as thousands
marched holding signs reading "We are all Armenians."
Turkey is facing international pressure to repudiate the law.
It should, because it's the right thing to do. If the European Union
aspirant hopes to gain entry into the international bloc, it must
fix its atrocious record on free speech.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/edito rials/stories/MYSA020607.01O.Turkey2ed.c148a2.html