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ACADEMIC RECEIVES SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR INSULTING ATATURK
Turkish Daily News
Jan 29 2008
Turkey
A political science professor was convicted of insulting the revered
founder of Turkey yesterday and given a 15-month suspended prison
sentence, the Doðan news agency reported.
Atilla Yayla, a professor at Ankara's Gazi University and head of
the Association for Liberal Thinking, was convicted of insulting the
legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded secular Turkey from the
ruins of the Ottoman Empire, and who is still revered nearly 70 years
after his death. His portraits adorn walls in all government offices.
Yayla's conviction comes as the country, which aspires to join the
European Union, has been condemned for not doing enough to protect
freedom of expression. Several prominent Turkish journalists and
writers - including Nobel literature prize winner Orhan Pamuk -
have been tried under another law that bars insulting "Turkishness"
and state institutions.
The professor, who could not immediately be reached for comment,
has the right to appeal the verdict.
Yayla was charged after saying in a speech in 2006 that the era of
one-party rule under Ataturk, from 1925-45, was not as progressive
as the official ideology would have Turks believe. He said it was
"regressive in some respects." He also criticized the statues and
pictures of Ataturk, saying Europeans would be baffled to see the
portraits of just one man on the walls.
Yayla rejected the charges against him, insisting that he was not
insulting Ataturk but questioning his legacy. He said he was also
challenging the rigid way in which some followers interpret Ataturk's
principles as opposing liberal reforms and their imposition of strict
secular laws such as the ban on headscarves at universities.
"As an academic, I must be free to think, to search and share
findings," Yayla said in a December 2006 interview with The Associated
Press. "If Turkey wants to be a civilized country, academics must be
able to scientifically criticize and evaluate Ataturk's ideas."
Gazi University fired Yayla over the controversy, but he was later
reinstated.
301 reform delayed:
The government's bid to lift a ban on wearing the Islamic headscarf in
universities has delayed an EU-sought reform of a law used to prosecute
writers, a senior deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP) said yesterday.
But AKP deputy Nurettin Canýklý told reporters the reform of the law
restricting free speech was still on the agenda.
Turkey is under pressure from the European Union to amend Article
301 of its penal code, which makes "insulting Turkishness" a crime
and has been used to prosecute dozens of writers.
Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was prosecuted under
Article 301, was found guilty and received a suspended six month
sentence. He was later shot and killed by a nationalist teenager, who
said he had committed the crime because Dink had insulted Turks.The
government, which declared 2008 to be a year of reforms with EU
process in mind, is considering amending the controversial article
and replace the current constitution with a more liberal one.
--Boundary_(ID_0HHyaME2zYzeFf0iGCVwXA)--
Turkish Daily News
Jan 29 2008
Turkey
A political science professor was convicted of insulting the revered
founder of Turkey yesterday and given a 15-month suspended prison
sentence, the Doðan news agency reported.
Atilla Yayla, a professor at Ankara's Gazi University and head of
the Association for Liberal Thinking, was convicted of insulting the
legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded secular Turkey from the
ruins of the Ottoman Empire, and who is still revered nearly 70 years
after his death. His portraits adorn walls in all government offices.
Yayla's conviction comes as the country, which aspires to join the
European Union, has been condemned for not doing enough to protect
freedom of expression. Several prominent Turkish journalists and
writers - including Nobel literature prize winner Orhan Pamuk -
have been tried under another law that bars insulting "Turkishness"
and state institutions.
The professor, who could not immediately be reached for comment,
has the right to appeal the verdict.
Yayla was charged after saying in a speech in 2006 that the era of
one-party rule under Ataturk, from 1925-45, was not as progressive
as the official ideology would have Turks believe. He said it was
"regressive in some respects." He also criticized the statues and
pictures of Ataturk, saying Europeans would be baffled to see the
portraits of just one man on the walls.
Yayla rejected the charges against him, insisting that he was not
insulting Ataturk but questioning his legacy. He said he was also
challenging the rigid way in which some followers interpret Ataturk's
principles as opposing liberal reforms and their imposition of strict
secular laws such as the ban on headscarves at universities.
"As an academic, I must be free to think, to search and share
findings," Yayla said in a December 2006 interview with The Associated
Press. "If Turkey wants to be a civilized country, academics must be
able to scientifically criticize and evaluate Ataturk's ideas."
Gazi University fired Yayla over the controversy, but he was later
reinstated.
301 reform delayed:
The government's bid to lift a ban on wearing the Islamic headscarf in
universities has delayed an EU-sought reform of a law used to prosecute
writers, a senior deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP) said yesterday.
But AKP deputy Nurettin Canýklý told reporters the reform of the law
restricting free speech was still on the agenda.
Turkey is under pressure from the European Union to amend Article
301 of its penal code, which makes "insulting Turkishness" a crime
and has been used to prosecute dozens of writers.
Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was prosecuted under
Article 301, was found guilty and received a suspended six month
sentence. He was later shot and killed by a nationalist teenager, who
said he had committed the crime because Dink had insulted Turks.The
government, which declared 2008 to be a year of reforms with EU
process in mind, is considering amending the controversial article
and replace the current constitution with a more liberal one.
--Boundary_(ID_0HHyaME2zYzeFf0iGCVwXA)--