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Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska)
April 26, 2008 Saturday
Iowa; Midlands; Nebraska; Sunrise Editions
A chauvinist nation: Keep Turkey out of the EU if it rejects real
freedom of speech.
EDITORIAL; Pg. 06B
There's freedom of speech, and then there's, well, un-freedom of
speech. Turkey is having difficulty accepting the real thing and is
justifiably suffering for it.
Since the days of Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern nation, Turkey
has had a ban on insulting "Turkishness." Since 2005, more than 60
cases have been prosecuted over "insults" ranging from denigrating the
nation's armed forces to writing a book about Ataturk that reported he
had once fled disguised as a woman. Most individuals have been
acquitted.
Many of the "insults" are derived from the Turkish nation's
sensitivities over its ethnic Kurds, whose rebellion was squashed in
the early 20th century at a cost of tens of thousands of lives, and
the ethnic cleansing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during the
final years of the Ottoman Empire, in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries.
Turkey wants to join the European Union but faces a freedom-of-speech
barrier. To overcome it, the nation is considering replacing the word
"Turkishness" with the phrase "Turkish nation" and reducing the
maximum penalty for the offense from three years to two.
That's hardly a giant step toward freedom of speech. If the EU is
serious about its core tenets, it will hold true to safeguarding the
principle of free speech. Further EU delay on Turkey's application for
membership would focus the minds of Turkish leaders on the need to
move away from a chauvinistic, narrow-minded attitude.
April 26, 2008 Saturday
Iowa; Midlands; Nebraska; Sunrise Editions
A chauvinist nation: Keep Turkey out of the EU if it rejects real
freedom of speech.
EDITORIAL; Pg. 06B
There's freedom of speech, and then there's, well, un-freedom of
speech. Turkey is having difficulty accepting the real thing and is
justifiably suffering for it.
Since the days of Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern nation, Turkey
has had a ban on insulting "Turkishness." Since 2005, more than 60
cases have been prosecuted over "insults" ranging from denigrating the
nation's armed forces to writing a book about Ataturk that reported he
had once fled disguised as a woman. Most individuals have been
acquitted.
Many of the "insults" are derived from the Turkish nation's
sensitivities over its ethnic Kurds, whose rebellion was squashed in
the early 20th century at a cost of tens of thousands of lives, and
the ethnic cleansing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during the
final years of the Ottoman Empire, in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries.
Turkey wants to join the European Union but faces a freedom-of-speech
barrier. To overcome it, the nation is considering replacing the word
"Turkishness" with the phrase "Turkish nation" and reducing the
maximum penalty for the offense from three years to two.
That's hardly a giant step toward freedom of speech. If the EU is
serious about its core tenets, it will hold true to safeguarding the
principle of free speech. Further EU delay on Turkey's application for
membership would focus the minds of Turkish leaders on the need to
move away from a chauvinistic, narrow-minded attitude.