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HPR: TURKEY'S HYPOCRITICAL REGARDING FRENCH BILL
armradio.am
28.03.2012 12:11
In an article in the Harvard Political Review, "France, Turkey, and
the Politics of Genocide," author Joe Mazur calls Turkey's response
to the passage of a set of bills that opted to criminalize the denial
of the Armenian Genocide in France as "hypocritical."
"The Turkish response to the legislation can best be described as
apoplectic," the author writes, adding that "Turkey's righteous
indignation might be more convincing if it was not also glaringly
hypocritical."
"When Erdogan, in a speech to parliament, insisted that the French
bill "murdered freedom of thought", he seemed to have forgotten that
Article 301 of the Turkish penal code makes it illegal to insult the
Turkish nation, ethnicity, or government. Since its implementation
in 2005, Article 301 has been used on many occasions to prosecute
writers, journalists, and scholars who have criticized Ankara's
policy of vehement genocide denial or who have otherwise run afoul
of the regime. It would seem, therefore, that Erdogan's definition of
"freedom of thought" is as fluid as is politically convenient.
Whatever the French motives for promulgating its genocide denial
legislation and regardless of whether or not such legislation truly
suppresses freedom of thought, Turkey simply cannot claim the moral
high ground when it comes to free expression," the author writes.
"Moreover, Turkey's hysterical reaction to the bill has made it
abundantly clear that the country is being forced to confront its
own checkered history," adds Mazur, who also interviewed Harvard
Professor of Armenian Studies James Russell about the matter.
"In Turkey itself, denial of the genocide is one of the cornerstones of
the culture. There has been a very systematic effort by the Turkish
state not only to deny that the genocide took place, but also to
eradicate signs that Armenians lived there," Russell said in an
interview with HPR.
armradio.am
28.03.2012 12:11
In an article in the Harvard Political Review, "France, Turkey, and
the Politics of Genocide," author Joe Mazur calls Turkey's response
to the passage of a set of bills that opted to criminalize the denial
of the Armenian Genocide in France as "hypocritical."
"The Turkish response to the legislation can best be described as
apoplectic," the author writes, adding that "Turkey's righteous
indignation might be more convincing if it was not also glaringly
hypocritical."
"When Erdogan, in a speech to parliament, insisted that the French
bill "murdered freedom of thought", he seemed to have forgotten that
Article 301 of the Turkish penal code makes it illegal to insult the
Turkish nation, ethnicity, or government. Since its implementation
in 2005, Article 301 has been used on many occasions to prosecute
writers, journalists, and scholars who have criticized Ankara's
policy of vehement genocide denial or who have otherwise run afoul
of the regime. It would seem, therefore, that Erdogan's definition of
"freedom of thought" is as fluid as is politically convenient.
Whatever the French motives for promulgating its genocide denial
legislation and regardless of whether or not such legislation truly
suppresses freedom of thought, Turkey simply cannot claim the moral
high ground when it comes to free expression," the author writes.
"Moreover, Turkey's hysterical reaction to the bill has made it
abundantly clear that the country is being forced to confront its
own checkered history," adds Mazur, who also interviewed Harvard
Professor of Armenian Studies James Russell about the matter.
"In Turkey itself, denial of the genocide is one of the cornerstones of
the culture. There has been a very systematic effort by the Turkish
state not only to deny that the genocide took place, but also to
eradicate signs that Armenians lived there," Russell said in an
interview with HPR.