APOLOGY CAMPAIGN BEING CONSIDERED FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, PROSECUTOR SAYS
Today’s Zaman
Jan 27 2009
Turkey
After completing its investigation, the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s
Office has concluded that there is no basis to prosecute Turkish
intellectuals who collected signatures for a statement that contained
a personal apology for the events of 1915, which Armenians claim
constituted genocide.
The prosecutor’s decision was based on the idea that "in democratic
societies, opposition views are under protection within the framework
of freedom of thought," the Anatolia news agency reported.
Prompted by six Ankara residents, the Ankara chief prosecutor launched
an investigation into the apology campaign organizers and the people
who signed the statement.
In their petition in early January, the six citizens based their
arguments on the grounds established by the Turkish Penal Code’s
(TCK) infamous Article 301, which has been used to prosecute
several intellectuals, journalists and activists for "insulting
Turkishness." With the Turkish Parliament’s amendment of the disputed
law last year, "insulting Turkishness" was replaced with "insulting
the Turkish nation."
The petitioners said that "those so-called intellectuals close their
eyes and consciences to the fact that in the same time period Armenian
gangs, with the cooperation of the imperialist occupiers, savagely
killed hundreds of thousands of Turkish people, and the phenomenon
that they mention is the phenomenon the Armenian claims of genocide
are based on."
Calling the "so-called genocide claims" baseless — which they
described as the Turkish state’s stance — they said the "so-called
intellectuals describe the state policy as ‘denial’ and declare
that they do not approve of it, so they accuse the Turkish nation of
‘committing genocide’," and as such, they are "degrading the Turkish
nation."