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Originally posted by neutral
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I would actually agree that this is likely a true statement...thus their denial of the truth is that much more criminal.... -
All this prooves is that Turks like you are content to believe any sort of bullxxxx that bolsters your (racist/xenophobic/twisted/nationalistic) a prior beliefs without any f ucking proof whatsoever. I'm glad for you that your delusions help you to sleep better at night.Originally posted by TurkishGComment
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Come on 1.5 you dont understand how hard it is......www.armenian-genocide.orgComment
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Doubts Over Free Speech Dog Turkey's Path To Eu
DOUBTS OVER FREE SPEECH DOG TURKEY'S PATH TO EU
By Daren Butler
Reuters, UK
Nov 16 2005
ISTANBUL, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Publisher Fatih Tas has faced more
prosecutions than birthdays in testing limits on freedom of expression
in Turkey -- an issue dogging the country's path towards the European
Union.
The 26-year-old will go on trial again on Thursday facing a jail
sentence of several years if he is convicted for publishing a book
prosecutors say insults the Turkish state and its founder, Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk.
Tas says he has had some 30 prosecutions. Convicted three times, he
has had a prison sentence reduced to a fine on each occasion. Some
cases he has won, others have been dropped, but most are continuing.
Similar charges crop up repeatedly in trials of writers, rights
activists and trade unionists, causing tension between Ankara and
Brussels over curbs on free speech in the largely Muslim country,
which started EU membership talks on Oct. 3.
In its annual progress report on Turkey last week, the EU stressed a
need for Ankara to bring its freedom of expression laws into line with
EU standards and address problems of people prosecuted or convicted
for their views.
"Our work is a way of contributing to the democratisation process in
Turkey. But these cases show the environment is not ripe for dealing
with issues like the role of the military and the Kurdish problem,"
said Tas, owner of Aram publishing house.
His latest book targeted by prosecutors is a translation of "Spoils
of War: The Human Cost of America's Arms Trade" by John Tirman of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The indictment is based on references to Ataturk's political ideology
and testimonies on rights violations by security forces in southeast
Turkey in the 1990s at the height of a Kurdish rebellion which has
claimed more than 30,000 lives.
The sensitivity of the Kurdish issue was illustrated on Tuesday when
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan boycotted a news conference with his
Danish counterpart in protest against the presence of a reporter he
said was linked to Kurdish rebels.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen responded by saying that
excluding the correspondent would have violated principles of freedom
of expression in the EU.
NEW PENAL CODE
In its efforts to address EU concerns, Turkey has taken ambitious
reform steps, abolishing State Security Courts and the death penalty
and producing a new, less restrictive penal code.
Ankara has vowed to tackle persistent shortcomings but some Turkish
analysts say the EU is making unfair demands and there is little
more the government can do but monitor the judiciary's implementation
of reforms.
"If the judiciary considers there is enough evidence to open a case
then how can they expect the government to interfere or order the
judiciary what to do?" said Hasan Unal of Ankara's Bilkent University,
a sceptic of the EU.
"The EU has double standards regarding Turkey and it only takes
an interest when the Kurds or other minority issues are involved,"
he said.
Erdogan must walk a thin line, boosting the country's human rights
record for the sake of the EU process while recognising nationalist
sensitivities on subjects such as the separatist Kurdistan Workers
Party (PKK) and the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
about the time of World War One.
Turkey's best-known novelist Orhan Pamuk will go on trial next month
charged with insulting the state in his comments about the Armenian
massacres. On Tuesday, Erdogan distanced himself from the Pamuk trial.
There is no sign of such cases abating. State prosecutors on Tuesday
charged two professors with inciting hatred and enmity for calling on
Turkey -- in a government-commissioned report -- to expand minorities'
rights.
In a separate case, Turkey's Court of Appeals upheld charges of
"insulting the judiciary" this week against a Turkish journalist
at the English-language Turkish Daily News. Burak Bekdil faces a
suspended 20-month prison sentence, but says he will appeal to the
European Court of Human Rights.Comment
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Publisher Sued Over Book Critical of Turkish State
By SEBNEM ARSU
Published: November 18, 2005
ISTANBUL, Nov. 18 - A Turkish book publisher said today that the government was suing it for distributing a translated book critical of the Turkish identity, army, state and the founder of the republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The head of Aram Publishing, Fatih Tas, could face three years in jail for issuing the book, "Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America's Arms Trade," by John Tirman, which focuses on Turkey. It was published in the United States in 1997.
Prosecutors contended that the book humiliated Turkish institutions by including the testimony of people who were subjected to human rights violations by the security forces during heavy fighting with the Kurdish Worker's Party, or P.K.K., in the country's southeastern region in the 1990's.
Prosecutors also took offense at the book for saying that the founder of modern Turkey adopted a nationalism that was "a version of fascism."
The case against Mr. Tas came as a surprise, although he has been sued many times in the past, because the Turkish government has reformed its penal code to favor further freedom of expression in order to qualify for membership in the European Union.
Lawsuits still crop up, however, involving issues like Kurdish rights or state unity, topics that remain sensitive in the eyes of the judiciary.
"The law is unlawfully open to interpretation," Mr. Tas said. "I'm accused of insulting the Turkish identity but the limits of what should be defined as an insult or criticism or scientific analysis are not mentioned in the law."
Several other intellectuals and writers, including the acclaimed novelist Orhan Pamuk, face similar charges, which raise concerns among the members of the European Union about how well Turkey can adapt to the standards of democracy in Europe.
"It's an outrage," said Dr. Sahin Alpay, a political scientist from Bahceshir University. "Nonviolent expression of opinion cannot be considered a crime in the new penal code, but it seems that it would take a quite long time for the authorities to adopt to these changes."
Government officials acknowledge shortcomings in adopting the legal reforms but take an optimist stand in the face of severe criticism from mainly European countries.
"I'll continue to do what I think serves democracy in Turkey and believe that Turkey will attain much better days in future," Mr. Tas said.
Trials of Mr. Tas and Mr. Pamuk are both scheduled for December. The novelist is charged with insulting the state in his comments - appearing in a Swiss newspaper in 2005 - about the Turkish massacre of ethnic Armenians in the last century.
"All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)Comment
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Joint Action: Publisher Ragip Zarakolu Faces 6-year Prison Sentence
IFEX, Canada
International Freedom of Expression Xchange
Nov. 23, 2005
Country/Topic: Turkey
Date: 22 November 2005
Source: Writers in Prison Committee, International PEN , International Publishers' Association (IPA)
Person(s): Ragip Zarakolu
Target(s): publisher(s)
Type(s) of violation(s): legal action
Urgency: Bulletin
(IPA/IFEX) - The following is a joint IPA/International PEN press release:
International PEN, the International Publishers' Association (IPA),
and other international NGOs, including ARTICLE 19 and Human Rights
Watch (HRW), were in Turkey to observe the trial of publisher Ragip
Zarakolu on 22 November 2005.
Ragip Zarakolu, co-founder and owner of Belge Publishing, is charged
in Istanbul with "insulting and undermining the State" under Article
301 of the new Penal Code. These charges stem from the publication of
a book by Dora Sakayan entitled: "Garabet Hacheryan's Izmir Journal:
An Armenian Doctor's Experiences" and George Jerjian's Book entitled:
"History Will Free Us All - Turkish-Armenian Conciliation".
In the Jerjian case, a new experts' committee was appointed to
assess whether the book is insulting or not. In the Sakayan case,
the prosecutor made his final statement, demanding a six-year prison
sentence for Ragip Zarakolu for having "insulted the Army" and
"Turkishness" by publishing this book.
The next hearing is due to take place on 15 February 2006. Lars Grahn,
Chairman of the IPA Freedom to Publish Committee, declares: "As the EU
membership negotiations started on 3 October 2005, we sincerely hope
that Ragip Zarakolu will be acquitted in the Sakayan case. For us,
there is no other alternative."
Ragip Zarakolu has been subjected to a series of time-consuming and
expensive court hearings. This is in itself a form of harassment and
punishment for daring to produce works that touch on sensitive issues.
There are currently an estimated 60 writers, publishers and journalists
in Turkey under judicial process. Eugene Schoulgin, Member of the Board
of International PEN says: "The new Article 301 of the Penal Code is
a simple cut and paste of the old Article 159. World famous author
Orhan Pamuk and many others are charged under new Article 301. Some,
like journalist Hrant Dink, have already been condemned. These trials
symbolise the sustainability of freedom of expression problems in
Turkey. It is time for these freedom of expression trials to come to
an end.""All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)Comment
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Rehn Warns Of Suspension In Talks Over Free Speech Violations
ABHaber, Belgium (EU-Turkey News Network)
Nov. 23, 2005
The European Union stepped up criticism of Turkey's record in ensuring
freedom of expression yesterday, warning bluntly that the accession
negotiations with the candidate country might be suspended if no
visible progress is achieved in the area in the next one or two years.
Olli Rehn, the EU's commissioner for enlargement, said violations of
freedom of expression were becoming more than "exceptional cases,"
tending to become widespread.
"Prisons in Europe would have been full of journalists had we
implemented the laws applied in Turkey," Rehn was quoted as saying
by private NTV.
Rehn's stern warning is a sign of coming tension in Turkey-EU ties
as Brussels' impatience with cases of legal action against writers,
journalists and others are cropping up repeatedly for expressions of
non-violent opinions.
The top EU enlargement official cited recent legal actions against
novelist Orhan Pamuk, editor of a bilingual Turkish/Armenian daily
Hrant Dink and Turkish Daily News columnist Burak Bekdil for their
statements as examples of the violations becoming commonplace.
Rehn's statement represents the EU's hardening position on the
issue since the release on Nov. 9 of a regular progress report by
the EU Commission on Turkey's reform efforts to achieve membership
requirements of the bloc.
In that report the EU said Turkey should do more to improve freedom of
expression, complaining in particular that people still face sentences
for expression of non-violent opinion. The cases of both Pamuk and
Dink were cited in the report's assessment.
A prosecutor in Istanbul brought charges against Pamuk in August for
February remarks on the deaths of Armenians and Kurds in an interview
with a Swiss newspaper. He may now go on trial on Dec. 16, the same
day when EU leaders will meet for a summit.
Dink was convicted under Article 301 and given a suspended six-month
sentence for an article he had written on the Armenian diaspora.
Finally, last week, the Court of Appeals approved a suspended 20-month
prison term for Turkish Daily News columnist Burak Bekdil on charges of
"insulting the state institutions" in an article he wrote in August
2001 in which he criticized the "failings and partiality" of the
Turkish legal system.
Accession negotiations with the EU started on Oct. 3, but the
commission might propose the suspension of talks in the event of a
serious breach of EU human rights standards.
Controversial article under government scrutiny:
The Turkish government, which has declared EU membership a top
priority, discussed measures to improve freedom of expression at a
meeting of four key ministers and bureaucrats.
The meeting, a regular gathering of the Reform Monitoring Group, which
brings together Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, Interior Minister
Abdulkadir Aksu, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek and state minister
and Turkey's chief negotiator for EU talks Ali Babacan, agreed to
closely follow the cases of Pamuk and Dink and their results before
considering any step for possible amendment of the relevant parts of
the new penal code.
The actions against both Pamuk and Dink were brought under Article
301 of the new Turkish Penal Code (TCK). The EU progress report says
Article 301 and other articles constitute a potential threat to freedom
of expression because they can be used to restrict such freedom.
"All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)Comment
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I think that special forces and Kemalist90210 and a few of the other Turks that post here should immediatly be arrested under the charge of "insulting Turkish identity"Comment
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Looooool
lmao
I have from reliable sources secret picture of them!"All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)Comment
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"All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)Comment
Comment