FREE-SPEECH CASE CAN’T HIDE PROGRESS
by Soli Ozel
The International Herald Tribune
September 8, 2005 Thursday
In December, the internationally renowned Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk
is scheduled to appear in court here for having “blatantly belittled
Turkishness.” If convicted he faces six months to three years in
prison. His offense? Having said to a Swiss newspaper in February:
“Thirty thousand Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in
Turkey. Almost no one dares to speak out on this but me.”
Pamuk’s indictment last week by a district prosecutor here was
undoubtedly an affront to the principle of freedom of expression as
was the vicious campaign by ultranationalists that followed Pamuk’s
remarks, including death threats that led him to leave Turkey for a
couple of months. In December, the court should throw out the charges
against him.
But those, especially in the West, who would use the indictment against
Pamuk to denigrate Turkey’s progress toward greater civil rights and
toward European Union membership are ignoring the distance that the
country has covered in the past decade.
For one thing, public debate in Turkey has in fact become much more
open and varied, particularly on the Armenian issue. For another,
though some liberals took exception to Pamuk’s wording and the platform
he chose, in the end Turkey’s democratic voices unequivocally defended
his right to express his views.
In addition, the very justice system that brought down the indictment
against Pamuk is deeply divided between those who favor a more modern,
liberal judicial mentality and those who are uncomfortable with such
an opening: Only two months ago, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office
had decided that Pamuk’s words were indeed protected by free speech.
A month from now, Pamuk is scheduled to receive the prestigious
Peace Award of the German Publishers and Writers Association. For
evidence of how far Turkey has come, it might pay to go revisit the
moment eight years ago when the grand old man of Turkish literature,
Yasar Kemal, received the same award.
At the time, Kemal had just been sentenced to 20 months in prison,
with his sentence suspended on condition that he did not commit the
same “crime” within five years. His crime was an article entitled
“Dark Clouds Over Turkey,” in which he severely criticized the Turkish
government’s policies toward its Kurdish citizens.
Turkey was indeed under dark clouds in 1997. The military was fighting
against the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a vicious group that
specialized in murdering its civilian opponents. The military’s tactics
trampled upon the human rights and dignity of Kurds in the country’s
southeast, and the overall national climate served to suppress any
expression of Kurdish identity. The war cost Turkey more than 30,000
lives, and hundreds of thousands became refugees in their own land.
When Kemal won his award, human rights violations were rampant and
freedom of expression was severely restricted. The European Union’s
refusal in that year to extend candidate member status to Turkey
froze relations with Ankara. The Union had no influence on Turkey
and its pull was weak.
Since then, not only has the war ended, but the EU has also reversed
its course. Turkey has made huge strides to fulfill the economic
and political conditions necessary to join the Union because the
Turkish public overwhelmingly support this goal. The movement toward
democratic governance and liberal politics has certainly encountered
great resistance at every turn. Yet in the end, the democratizing
will of Turkish society has prevailed; despite stiff opposition from
some powerful entrenched interests, groundbreaking reforms have been
undertaken. Last December, the European Council decided to start
accession talks with Turkey on Oct. 3 of this year, a decision
that many in the Union and in Turkey still find hard to digest,
or outright unacceptable.
So the indictment against Pamuk, however offensive, ought to be seen as
part of the ongoing struggle within Turkey about the country’s future,
particularly within the justice system. Some judiciary members have
been slow to adjust to contemporary legal norms. But judicial opinion
increasingly reflects the sophistication and outlook of a new attitude
toward the law and citizens’ rights.
Detractors of Turkey’s European destiny must have rejoiced in Pamuk’s
indictment. Yet they themselves have been displaying a non-European
spirit toward Turkey, with their rejection of Turks on cultural
(read religious) grounds and their petty maneuvering over commitments
already made. As such they are the Turkish hard-liners’ best allies.
Turks not unlike Kemal and Pamuk have spent over two centuries in
their country’s European vocation, often fighting on two fronts. That
is why it took them so long to get to where they are. But at the end
of the day, they have always prevailed.
*
Soli Ozel is a professor of international relations at Istanbul Bilgi
University and a columnist for the Turkish daily newspaper Sabah.