Tweet
TURKISH WRITERS FIND NO RELIEF IN FREE-SPEECH REFORM
By Emma Ross-Thomas
Reuters
April 18 2008
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Publisher Ragip Zarakolu reckons he may still
end up in jail for "insulting Turkishness", even after Turkey changes
a law notorious for limiting free speech.
After years of European Union criticism, Turkey is amending article
301 under which Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk and Armenian- urkish editor
Hrant Dink were tried for insulting Turkish identity. Dink was later
shot dead by a militant nationalist.
The proposed changes, however, are so minor that writers and publishers
in Turkey fear they will continue to face frequent trials. Meanwhile,
other laws which put just as much pressure on freedom of expression
remain untouched.
EU aspirant Turkey has a long tradition of limiting free speech,
especially on issues which continue to be seen in some quarters as a
threat to the modern republic. The rights of a large Kurdish minority,
the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, and Islamism are
all taboo; the military remains largely off-limits, despite moves to
curb its formal powers.
Under the draft changes it will be a crime to insult the Turkish
nation, rather than Turkishness, and the president's permission will
be required to open a case. The maximum sentence will be cut to two
years from three.
But nationalist lawyers, a powerful force in the Turkish legal system
the AK Party government seeks to reform, will still be able to put
writers in court as they did Pamuk and Dink.
"Some lawyers and judges feel they have a mission to defend the
state and the state ideology rather than the rights of the citizens,"
Zarakolu, a veteran journalist and publisher, told Reuters in a cafe
near his home on the Asian shore of Istanbul. His case is on hold
until the amendment is passed.
Zarakolu is on trial for publishing a translation of a book about
the Armenian massacres, which Ankara denies amounted to genocide. He
thinks he is likely to get convicted, and as he already has a suspended
sentence for an earlier piece of journalism, he says he could end up
in jail.
Zarakolu has long angered the establishment with books about Turkey's
taboos, and over the years has suffered jail and a bomb attack on
his office. The book he is on trial for now, a translation of George
Jerjian's "The Truth Will Set Us Free", is a call for reconciliation
between Turks and Armenians and tells the story of how a Turk saved
the writer's Armenian grandmother.
Dink, who was shot dead by a teenage nationalist outside his
Istanbul office in 2007, received a suspended sentence for "insulting
Turkishness" in his call for reconciliation.
Officials of the generally reformist ruling AK Party defend the
changes to article 301 saying other European countries have similar
restrictions. They acknowledge that changing the mentality of some
judges and lawyers is needed, though they repeatedly stress that many
writers have been acquitted.
"A lot of European countries have similar laws but, except for Poland,
they never use them. But here they use them all the time and they
will continue to use them," said Eugene Schoulgin, International
Secretary at activist group International PEN.
"I hope nobody will be cheated by this because it's no major
difference," he said in comments echoed by Human Rights Watch.
The existing law has been criticized for its vague wording, which
yields broad powers to judges to define what might constitute an
insult to Turkishness. The new law will not necessarily address this
fundamental problem.
"TRIED NON-STOP"
The reform, debated in a parliamentary commission on Friday, is
meant to be part of a wider attempt to bring the EU candidate's young
democracy in line with European standards.
The courts enjoy broad rights to intervene in what in western Europe
would be considered purely political matters. The governing AK Party
itself faces a court move to close it down on accusations of Islamist
ambitions and to ban Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President
Abdullah Gul from politics.
Brussels views this with concern and has also given the new freedom
of expression law a luke-warm response. On a recent trip to Turkey,
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it was a step
in the right direction.
Even if 301 were scrapped entirely, writers would still be banned from
expressing certain views. Insulting modern Turkey's revered founder,
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, remains a crime.
Novelist and columnist Perihan Magden has lost count of the cases
against her, but has never been in court for 301. She was given two
official bodyguards after Dink was killed last year.
She was tried for "turning people against military service" in
an article defending conscientious objectors, and though she was
acquitted in 2006, will be back in court on the same charges in July.
"I have 10 cases going against me, at least 10, I don't know how
many. It goes on and on," Magden told Reuters. "(My articles) are
not a call to arms or some terrorist act or something. It's just some
democratic rights that I'm asking for and I'm being tried non-stop."
The justice minister said recently that in the last five years almost
1,500 cases based on 301 had been opened.
In the establishment, support for the article is strong and both main
opposition parties fiercely oppose changing it. Only the deputies of
a pro-Kurdish party -- whose members frequently find themselves in
court for what they say -- are calling for outright abolition.
Zarakolu, who chuckles through his bushy grey beard as he recounts
his run-ins with the law, hopes that what the reform may achieve is
to delay his case with bureaucratic hurdles.
"It's either conviction or the dusty shelves," he says.
By Emma Ross-Thomas
Reuters
April 18 2008
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Publisher Ragip Zarakolu reckons he may still
end up in jail for "insulting Turkishness", even after Turkey changes
a law notorious for limiting free speech.
After years of European Union criticism, Turkey is amending article
301 under which Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk and Armenian- urkish editor
Hrant Dink were tried for insulting Turkish identity. Dink was later
shot dead by a militant nationalist.
The proposed changes, however, are so minor that writers and publishers
in Turkey fear they will continue to face frequent trials. Meanwhile,
other laws which put just as much pressure on freedom of expression
remain untouched.
EU aspirant Turkey has a long tradition of limiting free speech,
especially on issues which continue to be seen in some quarters as a
threat to the modern republic. The rights of a large Kurdish minority,
the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915, and Islamism are
all taboo; the military remains largely off-limits, despite moves to
curb its formal powers.
Under the draft changes it will be a crime to insult the Turkish
nation, rather than Turkishness, and the president's permission will
be required to open a case. The maximum sentence will be cut to two
years from three.
But nationalist lawyers, a powerful force in the Turkish legal system
the AK Party government seeks to reform, will still be able to put
writers in court as they did Pamuk and Dink.
"Some lawyers and judges feel they have a mission to defend the
state and the state ideology rather than the rights of the citizens,"
Zarakolu, a veteran journalist and publisher, told Reuters in a cafe
near his home on the Asian shore of Istanbul. His case is on hold
until the amendment is passed.
Zarakolu is on trial for publishing a translation of a book about
the Armenian massacres, which Ankara denies amounted to genocide. He
thinks he is likely to get convicted, and as he already has a suspended
sentence for an earlier piece of journalism, he says he could end up
in jail.
Zarakolu has long angered the establishment with books about Turkey's
taboos, and over the years has suffered jail and a bomb attack on
his office. The book he is on trial for now, a translation of George
Jerjian's "The Truth Will Set Us Free", is a call for reconciliation
between Turks and Armenians and tells the story of how a Turk saved
the writer's Armenian grandmother.
Dink, who was shot dead by a teenage nationalist outside his
Istanbul office in 2007, received a suspended sentence for "insulting
Turkishness" in his call for reconciliation.
Officials of the generally reformist ruling AK Party defend the
changes to article 301 saying other European countries have similar
restrictions. They acknowledge that changing the mentality of some
judges and lawyers is needed, though they repeatedly stress that many
writers have been acquitted.
"A lot of European countries have similar laws but, except for Poland,
they never use them. But here they use them all the time and they
will continue to use them," said Eugene Schoulgin, International
Secretary at activist group International PEN.
"I hope nobody will be cheated by this because it's no major
difference," he said in comments echoed by Human Rights Watch.
The existing law has been criticized for its vague wording, which
yields broad powers to judges to define what might constitute an
insult to Turkishness. The new law will not necessarily address this
fundamental problem.
"TRIED NON-STOP"
The reform, debated in a parliamentary commission on Friday, is
meant to be part of a wider attempt to bring the EU candidate's young
democracy in line with European standards.
The courts enjoy broad rights to intervene in what in western Europe
would be considered purely political matters. The governing AK Party
itself faces a court move to close it down on accusations of Islamist
ambitions and to ban Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President
Abdullah Gul from politics.
Brussels views this with concern and has also given the new freedom
of expression law a luke-warm response. On a recent trip to Turkey,
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it was a step
in the right direction.
Even if 301 were scrapped entirely, writers would still be banned from
expressing certain views. Insulting modern Turkey's revered founder,
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, remains a crime.
Novelist and columnist Perihan Magden has lost count of the cases
against her, but has never been in court for 301. She was given two
official bodyguards after Dink was killed last year.
She was tried for "turning people against military service" in
an article defending conscientious objectors, and though she was
acquitted in 2006, will be back in court on the same charges in July.
"I have 10 cases going against me, at least 10, I don't know how
many. It goes on and on," Magden told Reuters. "(My articles) are
not a call to arms or some terrorist act or something. It's just some
democratic rights that I'm asking for and I'm being tried non-stop."
The justice minister said recently that in the last five years almost
1,500 cases based on 301 had been opened.
In the establishment, support for the article is strong and both main
opposition parties fiercely oppose changing it. Only the deputies of
a pro-Kurdish party -- whose members frequently find themselves in
court for what they say -- are calling for outright abolition.
Zarakolu, who chuckles through his bushy grey beard as he recounts
his run-ins with the law, hopes that what the reform may achieve is
to delay his case with bureaucratic hurdles.
"It's either conviction or the dusty shelves," he says.