THE DAILY BLADE: First, They Came For The Writers
The United States government continues to remain silent on free speech restrictions in Turkey – most notably, what the European Union has called the "infamous" Article 301 of the Penal Code. Under Article 301, more than 60 fiction and non-fiction writers have been prosecuted for "denigrating Turkishness" – typically, for acknowledging the Armenian Genocide.
Turkish novelist and Novel Laureate Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted under Article 301 because he told a Swiss magazine, that "Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it." Another Turkish novelist, Elif Şafak, was also tried under Article 301 because a character in her novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, discussed the Armenian Genocide. The charges against both novelists were dropped.
Turkish journalists have also gone afoul of Article 301. When the government pulled the plug on a planned conference in Istanbul to discuss the Armenian Genocide, five of them wrote articles criticizing the decision. In four of the cases the charges dropped on a technicality, and one journalist was acquitted.
Journalist Hrant Dink was not as lucky. He was repeatedly charged under Article 301 for writing articles about the Armenian Genocide and discussing Turkey’s ongoing policy of denial in print and TV interviews.
Unlike the others, Dink was convicted instead of being acquitted or having the charges dropped on a technicality. Unlike Pamuk, Dink was not was given protection by the state after receiving death threats from Turkish nationalists. Unlike the others, Dink was executed for the crime of insulting Turkishness.
Unlike the others, Dink was an ethnic Armenian and not a Turk.
Now the reach of Article 301 has extended beyond print and broadcast media to cyberspace. Earlier in the week a Turkish court ordered access to video sharing Web site YouTube blocked – then reversed itself today for reasons that remain unclear - because of videos that allegedly insulted Kemal Ataturk, the founder of post-Ottoman Turkey. Insulting Atatutk is equivalent to insulting Turkishness under Article 301 and carries the same penalties.
Perhaps mindful of how nationalists punished Dink for his perceived insult, Paul Doany, head of Turk Telekom, began enforcing the ban immediately. The Associated Press reports:
"We are not in the position of saying that what YouTube did was an insult, that it was right or wrong," Doany said in remarks to the state-run Anatolia news agency. "A court decision was proposed to us, and we are doing what that court decision says." …
The video prompting the ban allegedly said Ataturk and the Turkish people were homosexuals, news reports said. The CNN-Turk Web site featured a link allowing Turks to complain directly to YouTube about the "insult" (emphasis, The Stiletto’s).
The "insulting" videos allegedly stated that Ataturk and the Turkish people are homosexuals.
And in another – unrelated – free speech development involving Turks and the Armenian Genocide, Reuters reports that a Swiss court has found Dogu Perincek, head of the leftist-nationalist Turkish Workers' Party, guilty of genocide denial. In a 2005 speech, Perincek called the characterization of the Armenian massacres of 1915 as genocide "an international lie."
This is the first conviction under a 1995 Swiss law that criminalizes denying, belittling or justifying any genocide; a dozen Turks were acquitted of similar charges in 2001.
Judge Pierre-Henri Winzap called Perincek an "arrogant instigator" and "racist" who had "intentionally" denied the genocide, which the Swiss consider an established historic fact. The judge sentenced Perincek to a 90-day suspended jail term - the maximum penalty is three years - and fined him 3,000 Swiss francs ($2,461), ordering that a third of the fine be paid to the Swiss-Armenian Association for "moral injury."
The Stiletto does not take a back seat to anyone when it comes to pressing Turkey to acknowledge its crime against humanity - not to mention cutting Genocide Deniers to ribbons at every opportunity (third item, "The Daily Blade") – but she does not cheer this verdict. The Stiletto is a staunch free speech advocate who opposes criminalizing the expression of ideas.
Dink himself – a martyr to the cause of free speech if ever there was one – opposed Article 301 in Turkey, as well as laws like this one in Switzerland. Last year when it looked as though France would pass a law making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide, Dink said:
"I have been tried in Turkey for saying the Armenian genocide exists, and I have talked about how wrong this is. But if this bill becomes law, I will be one of the first to head to France and break the law. Then we can watch Turkey and the French government race to see which will throw me in jail first."
Unlike CNN and others who defend some free speech some of the time, The Stiletto does not think anyone should go to jail for acknowledging or denying the Armenian Genocide – or for calling Ataturk the "F word."
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