Tweet
301 TO BE REVISED VERY SOON, PM ERDOGAN SAYS
Today's Zaman
April 3 2008
Turkey
Turkey will move to change an anti-free speech penal code article
as soon as Parliament finishes its work on a social security reform
bill that is currently under discussion, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said yesterday.
Turkey will take more steps toward completing its European Union
accession process, Prime Minister Erdogan, who is on a visit to Sweden,
said in a speech at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
He also promised more freedoms and a change to the infamous Turkish
Penal Code Article 301, under which many of the country's prominent
writers and journalists have been taken to court for "denigrating
Turkishness," a crime under the problematic article.
"Article 301 will drop off the agenda of Turkey and of the European
Union," pledged Erdogan. He also stated that soon state television
stations will offer programs broadcast in Kurdish, Arabic and Persian,
an important improvement in minority rights demanded by the EU.
Erdogan in his address told the audience that his ruling Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) has added a depth to politics in
Turkey and has normalized the country's democracy. He also commented
on a recent suit seeking to shut down the AK Party over alleged
anti-secularist activities.
European Union officials have repeatedly warned that a closure of
the AK Party would have serious implications on the country's bid to
join the 27-nation club. The Constitutional Court agreed on Monday
to hear a closure case against the AK Party on charges of it having
become "a focal point for anti-secular activities." In an immediate
reaction to the court's decision, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli
Rehn repeated a strong warning that it exposed a "systemic error"
in Turkey's Constitution, announcing that he would brief the EU
Commission on the case on Wednesday.
Regarding the indictment filed with the Constitutional Court the
prime minister merely stated: "The legal process has started. From
this point on the Constitutional Court will carry out its duty."
Also yesterday, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf received Erdogan. The
Turkish prime minister, who arrived late Tuesday, later visited the
nearby parliament building for a meeting with the members of the
parliament committee on European Union affairs and the committee on
foreign affairs as well as Parliament Speaker Per Westerberg.
As Erdogan made his first official contact in Stockholm with King Carl
XVI Gustaf at the royal palace, a small group held a demonstration
outside of the building.
A group of Armenians and Assyrians carried banners reading "We haven't
forgotten the incidents of 1915," "Turkey should recognize the Assyrian
genocide of 1915" and "Don't forget the massacres." The Swedish police
surrounded the group with a security line.
Both Armenians and Assyrians claim that hundreds of thousands of
their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings during the last
years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey categorically rejects the claims,
saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least as many Turks died
in civil strife that emerged when the Armenians took up arms for
independence in eastern Anatolia.
Today's Zaman
April 3 2008
Turkey
Turkey will move to change an anti-free speech penal code article
as soon as Parliament finishes its work on a social security reform
bill that is currently under discussion, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said yesterday.
Turkey will take more steps toward completing its European Union
accession process, Prime Minister Erdogan, who is on a visit to Sweden,
said in a speech at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
He also promised more freedoms and a change to the infamous Turkish
Penal Code Article 301, under which many of the country's prominent
writers and journalists have been taken to court for "denigrating
Turkishness," a crime under the problematic article.
"Article 301 will drop off the agenda of Turkey and of the European
Union," pledged Erdogan. He also stated that soon state television
stations will offer programs broadcast in Kurdish, Arabic and Persian,
an important improvement in minority rights demanded by the EU.
Erdogan in his address told the audience that his ruling Justice
and Development Party (AK Party) has added a depth to politics in
Turkey and has normalized the country's democracy. He also commented
on a recent suit seeking to shut down the AK Party over alleged
anti-secularist activities.
European Union officials have repeatedly warned that a closure of
the AK Party would have serious implications on the country's bid to
join the 27-nation club. The Constitutional Court agreed on Monday
to hear a closure case against the AK Party on charges of it having
become "a focal point for anti-secular activities." In an immediate
reaction to the court's decision, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli
Rehn repeated a strong warning that it exposed a "systemic error"
in Turkey's Constitution, announcing that he would brief the EU
Commission on the case on Wednesday.
Regarding the indictment filed with the Constitutional Court the
prime minister merely stated: "The legal process has started. From
this point on the Constitutional Court will carry out its duty."
Also yesterday, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf received Erdogan. The
Turkish prime minister, who arrived late Tuesday, later visited the
nearby parliament building for a meeting with the members of the
parliament committee on European Union affairs and the committee on
foreign affairs as well as Parliament Speaker Per Westerberg.
As Erdogan made his first official contact in Stockholm with King Carl
XVI Gustaf at the royal palace, a small group held a demonstration
outside of the building.
A group of Armenians and Assyrians carried banners reading "We haven't
forgotten the incidents of 1915," "Turkey should recognize the Assyrian
genocide of 1915" and "Don't forget the massacres." The Swedish police
surrounded the group with a security line.
Both Armenians and Assyrians claim that hundreds of thousands of
their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings during the last
years of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey categorically rejects the claims,
saying that 300,000 Armenians along with at least as many Turks died
in civil strife that emerged when the Armenians took up arms for
independence in eastern Anatolia.