| Author (Person) | Beatty, Andrew |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.11, No.42, 24.11.05 |
| Publication Date | 24/11/2005 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 24/11/05 To judge from recent reports, freedom of speech in Turkey is being eroded daily. Newspapers all over Europe have catalogued the case of Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's best-known author, who goes on trial on 16 December facing three years in prison for suggesting that the Ottoman empire was responsible for the genocide of tens of thousands of Armenians. The publisher Fatih Tas faces similar charges of "degrading the quality of the Turkish nation" after he published a map marking the Kurdish areas of the country. It is not just the European press that has noted this apparent rise in attacks on free speech. At a time when Turkey is under intense scrutiny as it begins accession talks with the EU, the European Commission is also asking questions about the state of freedom of speech and the actions of Turkey's judiciary. Earlier this month, the Commission issued its regular report on Turkey's progress towards joining the EU. While the report praised June's adoption of a new penal code because it introduces the cross-examination of witnesses and translation from Turkish into Turkey's other languages, it also voiced concern that certain articles "may be used to restrict freedom of expression". It was a thinly veiled reference to Article 301, which sets out "the crime of degrading the quality of the Turkish nation, the Republic and official institutions and organisations". It is this article that is used by nationalist prosecutors against Pamuk and Tas. But these high-profile prosecutions, along with Article 301, obscure a longer trend. The orthodoxy of the Turkish Republic is today being challenged as never before in the 82 years since its founding. Subjects that were previously taboo - the role of the army or Islam in society, the rights of minorities such as the Kurds of Alevis, or what happened to the Armenians in 1915 - are being challenged with openness and frequency. Just two years ago, a senior Commission official working in Ankara admitted that he had never discussed the issue of the Armenian genocide with his Turkish counterparts. Today the French government, although criticised, openly questions the actions of the then Ottoman state and conferences are staged to discuss the subject. Insofar as they buck a trend, the recent spate of challenges to free speech are indicative of a much more existential debate over Turkey's future. According to the author Elif Shafak, Turkey's reforms have brought to the fore the main structural division in Turkish society today. It is a division between the Kemalists, who want to see a strong secular state based on the principles of its founder Mustafa Kemal Atat�rk, and those whose focus is on society and the rights of the individual. "The state-oriented group is a mixed group," Shafak explains, "but their common point is that the Turkish state is the most important thing to preserve and protect." "These people, in the name of protecting the state, can block any opposition or form of critical thinking because they think they are the guarantors of the state, the protectors of the state." Privately, Commission officials acknowledge that a raft of EU-inspired reforms curbing the power of the army and reforming the judiciary was always likely to prompt the nationalist backlash that can be seen today. With a government broadly backing the EU's reforms, the prosecution of Pamuk and Tas might be no more than an Indian summer for Turkey's hard-line Kemalists. Yet the backlash might also turn out to be a high-water mark for the EU's influence. With accession negotiations opened, popular support for membership can be expected to slip and with it the ability of the EU to push through reform. More critically, the first cracks are beginning to appear in the ruling AK party which has been the EU's partner in reform. With elections expected soon, reforms have to take root. If recent prosecutions are not to become the norm, the emphasis must now be on pushing for reform from within Turkey, with or without the AK party. Analysis feature in which the author looks at recent developments in Turkey concerning the freedom of expression. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Countries / Regions | Turkey |
