Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Feb 1 2007
Çiçek on defensive in debate over Article 301
Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek yesterday defended a controversial
article of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), saying similar laws existed
in other countries.
`They say this is a shame for Turkey,’ Çiçek told a meeting of the
Ankara Chamber of Industry (ASO). `If this is so, then the same shame
exists in many European countries as well.’ Pressure on the
government to change Article 301 of the TCK has increased since Hrant
Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist who had been tried and convicted
under the article, was killed by a teenager assailant on Jan. 19.
Dink was sentenced to a six-month suspended imprisonment for
`insulting Turkishness’ for comments related to an alleged genocide
of Armenians and the Armenian diaspora attitudes towards the Turks.
His suspected murderer, a teenager from the Black Sea province of
Erzurum, reportedly confessed to killing him because he had said
`Turkish blood is dirty.’
The European Union, which Turkey aspires to join, says the article
limits freedom of expression and urges Ankara to change or abolish
it. But the government has been dragging its feet, saying changes to
the Article 301 requires social consensus.
Çiçek said many people had similarly argued that a ten-percent
election threshold was also a shame for Turkey, but this argument was
invalidated when the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday
that the threshold did not violate norms of the European Convention
on Human Rights.
`People should come to see that such an attitude is wrong after the
European court’s decision,’ Çiçek said. `Election threshold, too,
exists in one way or another in every country.’
The justice minister, who has been one of the strongest opponents of
amendments to the Article 301, also complained the issue was being
politicized. `This must be discussed among the legal experts… Such
debates do not lead Turkey anywhere.’
Gathering for Dink’s funeral in Ýstanbul last Tuesday, most of the
mourners carried black-and-white banners reading `Murderer 301.’ In
yesterday’s meeting, ASO Chairman criticized the banners, saying they
were `unacceptable.’ Defending Article 301, Çaðlayan said: `In
Denmark, you get four months in jail if you insult any nation. So,
you would end up in jail if you insult Turkey in Denmark, but get no
punishment if you do the same thing in Turkey. This is not
acceptable.’