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Turkey: What is 'Dangerous' about Minority
Report? 17.9.2007 |
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Prof.
Dr. Kaboglu has reacted to the Court of Appeal's
decision to overturn his aquittal by saying that "a
change in attitude
takes time".
September 17, 2007
Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Kaboglu and Prof. Dr. Baskin Oran
had been tried for, and then acquitted of, "inciting
to hatred and hostility" with the publication of the
Minority Rights and Cultural Rights Working Group
report. A court of appeal has now overturned the
acquittal.
Kaboglu is sure that the decree will be overturned
in Strasbourg (i.e. at the European Court of Human
Rights), but his deepfelt wish was that it would be
overturned in Ankara.
Little hope for freedom of expression
According to the professor, hope for the freedom of
speech existed in judges such as the Penal Judge
Avni Mis, who had decreed the initial acquittal, as
well as Appeals Judge Hamdi Yaver Aktan, who had
voted against overturning the acquittal. Kaboglu
added, "A change of attitude will take a long time."
Yavuz Önen, the president of the Turkish Human
Rights Foundation (TIHV), which had put its
signature to the report, protested against the fact
that two academics could be tried for up to five
years imprisonment for writing about issues in the
report which were being discussed in the preparation
of a "civil" constitution now.
He was referring to the concept of "Turkish Republic
Citizenship" which has been included in the draft
for a new constitution.
This does not sound very different from the
suggestion that Kaboglu and Oran had made, when they
put forward the concept of "Turkey-ness" (meaning in
effect citizenship of the Turkish Republic) as a
"supra-identity".
Constitution does not guarantee freedom of
expression
Kaboglu also commented on the "interesting
coincidence" that the concept in the constitutional
draft was being published at the same time as their
court acquittal was being overturned: "It has been
shown clearly once again that it is even more
important to get rid of legal decisions which turn
the freedom of thought and expression into crimes
than to rewrite the constitution."
Similarly, Önen said, "This example shows that it is
not enough to enshrine human rights in the
constitution; they have to be internalised and
applied by all the institutions of the country."
The 8th Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of
Appeals had said in its justification of the
overruling: "In the report, a redefinition of the
term 'minority' will represent a danger to the
unitary state and the indivisibility of the nation."
"No justification of 'danger'"
In a written statement, Kaboglu reacted to this
interpretation of the report as "dangerous": "There
was no justification given for this evaluation and
no proof whatsoever of whatever danger was supposed
to have emerged."
Same article used in Gaziantep
Kaboglu and Oran had been tried under Article 216/1.
The same law has been used in Gaziantep, in the
south-east of Turkey, where journalist and newspaper
owner Yasin Yetisgen is on trial under Article 216/1
for publishing an article containing the expression
"Northern Kurdistan" in his weekly local "Coban
Atesi" (Shepherd's Fire) newspaper.
The controversial sentence reads, "With a population
of nearly two million, Antep is the biggest
metropole of Northern Kurdistan."
Yetisgen and Hursit Kassikkirmaz, the journalist who
wrote the article, will both be on trial from 4
October. The trial will take place at the Gaziantep
10th Penal Court.
bianet org
**
Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in
Turkey and are denied rights granted to other
minority groups. Under EU pressure, Turkey recently
granted Kurds limited rights for broadcasts and
education in the Kurdish language, but critics say
the measures do not go far enough.
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan" Southeast
Turkey.
Others estimate over 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
Turkey is home to over 25 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of Turkey.
Before August 2002, the Turkish government placed
severe restrictions on the use of Kurdish language,
prohibiting the language in education and broadcast
media.
The Kurdish alphabet is still not recognized
in Turkey, and use of the Kurdish letters X, W, Q
which do not exist in the Turkish
alphabet has led to judicial persecution in 2000 and
2003
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan
but unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag
is banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it
is a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan ( Kurdistan-Turkey)
wikipedia
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