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JOURNALIST LALE SARýIBRAHIMOðLU FACES TRIAL UNDER ARTICLE 301
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Oct 23 2007
Today's Zaman columnist and Jane's Defence Weekly (JDW) correspondent
Lale Sarýibrahimoðlu is to appear tomorrow at the first hearing of
a court case filed against her after she allegedly "insulted the
military."
The court case is based on the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish
Penal Code (TCK), which penalizes the denigration of "Turkishness"
or the Turkish army. Article 301 has given Turkey a headache in its
European Union accession process, but for the time being it seems to
be the cause of a bigger headache for one of Turkey's distinguished
journalists.
Sarýibrahimoð ;lu will appear in court together with Ahmet Þýk, a
reporter from the now closed Nokta newsweekly, who had published an
interview with Sarýibrahimoðlu titled "The military should withdraw
its hand from internal security" in the Feb. 8, 2007 edition of Nokta.
Reporters Þýk and Sarýibrahimoðlu, who have been accused of violating
Article 301 due to Sarýibrahimoðlu's statements made in the interview,
will be tried at the Bakýrkoy 2nd Court of the First Instance with a
penalty recommendation of up to three years' imprisonment. The basis
for the court case is Sarýibrahimoðlu's remarks regarding media images
of the alleged gunman who shot Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink
in January of this year): "While police officers were suspended,
military personnel were only transferred to other posts. When you
examine this picture, you see a concern for protecting not only the
personnel, but an institution -- moreover, a mentality. ... We saw it
once again with the Dink investigation; there are sordid and rotten
ones in each of the three institutions that should be removed. ..."
Sarýibrahimoðlu, an expert on defense and diplomacy, has been writing
columns as well as news articles for Today's Zaman and has also been
working for the UK-based JDW since 1991 as its Turkey correspondent.
Apart from her award-winning book on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline published in 1997, Sarýibrahimoðlu contributed three articles
to "Almanac Turkey 2005: Security Sector and Democratic Oversight,"
co-published by the Istanbul-based Turkish Economic and Social Studies
Foundation (TESEV) and the Geneva-based Democratic Control of the
Armed Forces (DCAF) in June 2006.
"Turkish Defence Procurement, Joint Ventures & Offset Agreements:
The International Guide to the Turkish Defence Industry," also written
by Sarýibrahimoðlu, was published in 1999 by the UK-based SMI.
Article 301 of the TCK was used to file indictments against Nobel
laureate Orhan Pamuk, slain journalist Dink and novelist Elif Þafak.
More recently, Dink's son Arat Dink and colleague Serkis Seropyan
faced trial under Article 301. The ruling Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) is preparing to amend or at least significantly
change the wording of the article.
--Boundary_(ID_Z2csChobqW2IP4Vqq2R5lQ)--
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Oct 23 2007
Today's Zaman columnist and Jane's Defence Weekly (JDW) correspondent
Lale Sarýibrahimoðlu is to appear tomorrow at the first hearing of
a court case filed against her after she allegedly "insulted the
military."
The court case is based on the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish
Penal Code (TCK), which penalizes the denigration of "Turkishness"
or the Turkish army. Article 301 has given Turkey a headache in its
European Union accession process, but for the time being it seems to
be the cause of a bigger headache for one of Turkey's distinguished
journalists.
Sarýibrahimoð ;lu will appear in court together with Ahmet Þýk, a
reporter from the now closed Nokta newsweekly, who had published an
interview with Sarýibrahimoðlu titled "The military should withdraw
its hand from internal security" in the Feb. 8, 2007 edition of Nokta.
Reporters Þýk and Sarýibrahimoðlu, who have been accused of violating
Article 301 due to Sarýibrahimoðlu's statements made in the interview,
will be tried at the Bakýrkoy 2nd Court of the First Instance with a
penalty recommendation of up to three years' imprisonment. The basis
for the court case is Sarýibrahimoðlu's remarks regarding media images
of the alleged gunman who shot Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink
in January of this year): "While police officers were suspended,
military personnel were only transferred to other posts. When you
examine this picture, you see a concern for protecting not only the
personnel, but an institution -- moreover, a mentality. ... We saw it
once again with the Dink investigation; there are sordid and rotten
ones in each of the three institutions that should be removed. ..."
Sarýibrahimoðlu, an expert on defense and diplomacy, has been writing
columns as well as news articles for Today's Zaman and has also been
working for the UK-based JDW since 1991 as its Turkey correspondent.
Apart from her award-winning book on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline published in 1997, Sarýibrahimoðlu contributed three articles
to "Almanac Turkey 2005: Security Sector and Democratic Oversight,"
co-published by the Istanbul-based Turkish Economic and Social Studies
Foundation (TESEV) and the Geneva-based Democratic Control of the
Armed Forces (DCAF) in June 2006.
"Turkish Defence Procurement, Joint Ventures & Offset Agreements:
The International Guide to the Turkish Defence Industry," also written
by Sarýibrahimoðlu, was published in 1999 by the UK-based SMI.
Article 301 of the TCK was used to file indictments against Nobel
laureate Orhan Pamuk, slain journalist Dink and novelist Elif Þafak.
More recently, Dink's son Arat Dink and colleague Serkis Seropyan
faced trial under Article 301. The ruling Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) is preparing to amend or at least significantly
change the wording of the article.
--Boundary_(ID_Z2csChobqW2IP4Vqq2R5lQ)--