Oktay Eksi: Our weapon is freedom of expression
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Has France really surprised us, or has it shown us that the "freedom-loving" France whose image we have carried for years in our minds is not the real thing, replaced instead by this fanatic, anti-freedom of expression, "one truth," despotic country we now face? It seems that we have seen the king naked for the first time. And because of this, we are surprised.
France doesn't see what an embarassment it is to tell people "If you say that the Armenian genocide didn't happen, you get 5 years in prison and up to 45 Euro in fines." What they are saying is, "even if you know another truth, you may not express it." What an embarassment this is to civilization.
Look, we are not even saying "There was no slaughter of Armenians." We do not believe that there was, but we are not going to get into this subject right now. We are right now just looking at this incident from the perspective of freedom of expression, and maintaining from this moment that this bill-if accepted, which it most likely will be-will not only be a great shame for France, but for the entire EU.
And while on the subject of the EU, I would like to draw your attention to words spoken this week by the EU's Commissioner in charge of Expansion, Olli Rehn: "If this French Parliament votes to accept this bill, I fear it will create a very non-constructive atmosphere." Why, I ask, does Olli Rehn, who arrived in Turkey two weeks ago demanding in no uncertain terms that Ankara remove article 301 from its penal code, water-down his words so blatantly when it comes to France? Couldn't he find it in himself somewhere to say "This bill is completely opposed to freedom of expression"? Or is the game played differently once a country is already inside the EU?
And by the way, where are the intellectuals who crow so often "Europe is a union of culture and values"? Where is former President Giscard d'Estaigne? Why aren't the columns in Le Monde dealing with this subject? France is showing that they are no longer of this age, but have returned to being the French of the age of Inquisition, the times when Galileo was forbade from saying that the Earth moved around the Sun.
Don't think that I am exaggerating. We are obliged to emerge successful from this fight, which began with the slander about the "Armenian genocide." This is because if we don't, the accusation will never be removed from our official records. And what this means-as I wrote yesterday in this space-is that we must direct our side of this fight very well. As Taha Akyol wrote yesterday in his column, what makes us strong in this fight is the "freedom of expression" weapon. But Turkey must be careful, before telling others about the shame of their infraction against freedom of expression, to clean up its own shames. Firsy and foremost in this realm comes our very own Turkish Penal Code, and its article 301, forbidding the "insulting of Turkishness."
In the end, as you can see, "freedom of expression" will be our salvation.