Some of the 301 trials justified: minister
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hurriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Kasım 18, 2008 00:00
ANKARA - Compulsory Justice Ministry approval for Article 301 investigations to proceed is a positive step that allows most investigations never to see the light of day, says Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin, but notes that his ministry’s consent for charges against a writer, Temel Demirer, are right because Demirer called the country a killer
Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Åžahin defended his decision to consent to prosecution of author Temel Demirer under the Turkish Penal Code’s controversial Article 301, which criminalizes insulting "’Turkishness,’ the government and state institutions."Â
"Demirer claimed Turkey is a killer country. It killed Armenians and now will kill Kurds. I won’t let anyone call my country killer," Şahin said in an interview with the daily Sabah.
Article 301 has been a major point of criticism from the EU, which Turkey wants to join. The article allows the prosecution of individuals who are perceived to have insulted Turkishness, state institutions and the top state officials and is seen by activists and EU officials as a major impediment to freedom of speech.
Turkey’s Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk was among those prosecuted by the article. The court stopped the trial after the Justice Ministry failed to give consent.
Journalist Hrant Dink was prosecuted and found guilty in another 301 case, receiving a suspended sentence. Dink was later murdered by a teenage nationalist who told the police he had shot the journalist for insulting the country.
Justice Ministry approval needed for trial
Turkey faced a barrage of criticism due to the trials, with the government eventually changing the penal code to allow 301 investigations to proceed only with approval from the Justice Ministry. The authority to commence trials concerning Article 301-related cases was given to the Justice Ministry under an amendment made to the Turkish Penal Code in April 2008.
Some 381 Article 301-related cases have reached the ministry within the last six months. The ministry examined 263 of them and didn’t require a court investigation for 216 of them. The ministry approved only 47 cases for court hearings, according to Şahin.
Demirer was among those whom Şahin gave consent for the prosecution. Demirer was charged with insulting the Turkish nation under Article 301 for his words right after the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was killed in January 2007. He participated in the protests in Ankara after Dink’s assassination and said the government failed to prevent Dink from being killed.
"There is genocide in our history and its name is the Armenian genocide. Hrant showed this fact with his own life. I commit a crime and invite all to do the same. Those who don’t commit crime against this killer government will share the guilt of Dink’s killers. We should commit a crime in order to prevent what happened to those Armenians in the past not to happen to Kurds today," he said.
The court requested a jail sentence of five years for Demirer.
Åžahin said what Demirer said went unnoticed but when the ministry gave permit for the prosecution everybody felt sorry for him.
"This is not a freedom of expression. It exactly falls a crime of insulting Turkish nation under the Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code," he said. Şahin also said if the ministry permit wasn’t required in line with the new amendment, the 381 cases concerning the article would be on trial. He said those who defended the old version of Article 301 shouldn’t ignore this fact.
"Demirer claimed Turkey is a killer country. It killed Armenians and now will kill Kurds. I won’t let anyone call my country killer," Şahin said in an interview with the daily Sabah.
Article 301 has been a major point of criticism from the EU, which Turkey wants to join. The article allows the prosecution of individuals who are perceived to have insulted Turkishness, state institutions and the top state officials and is seen by activists and EU officials as a major impediment to freedom of speech.
Turkey’s Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk was among those prosecuted by the article. The court stopped the trial after the Justice Ministry failed to give consent.
Journalist Hrant Dink was prosecuted and found guilty in another 301 case, receiving a suspended sentence. Dink was later murdered by a teenage nationalist who told the police he had shot the journalist for insulting the country.
Justice Ministry approval needed for trial
Turkey faced a barrage of criticism due to the trials, with the government eventually changing the penal code to allow 301 investigations to proceed only with approval from the Justice Ministry. The authority to commence trials concerning Article 301-related cases was given to the Justice Ministry under an amendment made to the Turkish Penal Code in April 2008.
Some 381 Article 301-related cases have reached the ministry within the last six months. The ministry examined 263 of them and didn’t require a court investigation for 216 of them. The ministry approved only 47 cases for court hearings, according to Şahin.
Demirer was among those whom Şahin gave consent for the prosecution. Demirer was charged with insulting the Turkish nation under Article 301 for his words right after the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was killed in January 2007. He participated in the protests in Ankara after Dink’s assassination and said the government failed to prevent Dink from being killed.
"There is genocide in our history and its name is the Armenian genocide. Hrant showed this fact with his own life. I commit a crime and invite all to do the same. Those who don’t commit crime against this killer government will share the guilt of Dink’s killers. We should commit a crime in order to prevent what happened to those Armenians in the past not to happen to Kurds today," he said.
The court requested a jail sentence of five years for Demirer.
Åžahin said what Demirer said went unnoticed but when the ministry gave permit for the prosecution everybody felt sorry for him.
"This is not a freedom of expression. It exactly falls a crime of insulting Turkish nation under the Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code," he said. Şahin also said if the ministry permit wasn’t required in line with the new amendment, the 381 cases concerning the article would be on trial. He said those who defended the old version of Article 301 shouldn’t ignore this fact.