TURKEY COULD RETHINK INSULT LAW
BBC News, UK
Oct 3 2007
Mr Gul has been credited with steering Turkey’s bid to join the EU
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has called for changes to a law that
has allowed writers to face trial for insulting Turkish identity.
Nobel-laureate writer Orhan Pamuk and slain journalist Hrant Dink
are among the many people tried under Article 301, though few have
been convicted.
Mr Gul told a meeting of Council of Europe ministers that the article
had damaged Turkey’s bid to join the EU.
He said he expected the AK Party, which won recent polls, to review
the law.
"Even though nobody has been jailed under this article, I would like
to see it changed," Mr Gul said.
"Parliament is now open and I predict some regulations could be made
in connection with this issue."
It is Turkey’s government, rather than its president, that decides
changes to the country’s laws.
As a former foreign minister in the pre-election AK Party cabinet,
Mr Gul still has influence within the party.
The election was triggered by a crisis over Mr Gul’s presidential bid,
with Turkey’s secular establishment accusing him – and the AK Party –
of harbouring an Islamist agenda.
‘Unfair perception’
Speaking at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Mr Gul defended his
country’s human rights record.
"Nobody is in prison in Turkey today for expressing their ideas,"
he said.
But he acknowledged that much remained to be done and Article 301
had contributed an "unfair perception" that Turkey jailed dissidents.
The law has recently been used to prosecute writers and journalists
who argued that Turkey was the scene of a genocide against Armenians
in the early 20th Century.
Turkey officially rejects the view that their deaths can be classed
as genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
