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EU cautious over change in `insulting Turkishness'

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  • EU cautious over change in `insulting Turkishness'

    New Europe, Belgium
    May 5 2008

    EU cautious over change in `insulting Turkishness'
    5 May 2008 - Issue : 780


    The European Union has given a wary reception to amendments approved
    by the Turkish parliament on its infamous Article 301 of the criminal
    code regulating freedom of speech, which made it a serious crime to
    `insult Turkishness,' and had led to the jailing of dissidents and
    those who pushed to recognise the Armenian genocide. In a statement
    issued on behalf of all 27 EU member states, the bloc's presidency
    called the change, which replaced `insulting Turkishness,' with
    `insulting the Turkish nation,' as `a constructive step forward.' `We
    look forward to its effective implementation.

    This step is both positive for Turkey and an indication of Turkey's
    continuing commitment to the reform process,' the statement added. The
    European executive, the Commission, said it was now looking forward to
    `further moves to change similar articles in the penal codes' so as to
    ensure an end to unwarranted prosecutions. `Now the Turkish
    authorities need to focus on the implementation of the reform to
    guarantee freedom of expression for all Turkish citizens,' a
    commission spokesman said.

    The approved amendments also reduce the maximum prison sentence that
    courts may inflict on offenders, from three to two years, and makes
    the opening of court cases subject to approval by the justice
    minister. The EU and human rights groups have long campaigned for
    changes to the law, which have been used to prosecute hundreds of
    writers and intellectuals. Of these, the most prominent has been Nobel
    laureate Orhan Pamuk and ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who
    was murdered after being found guilty of `insulting Turkishness.'
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