Bulletin de liaison etd'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Baszn Özeti
TIME FEBRUARY 25, 2002
EUROPE
WHAT WILL TURKEY
•
As it promotes global harmony, thé country faces
deep internal conflicts over freedom of expression
Turkey on its path to E.U. membership.
"Law is not local anymore," says Vahit Bicak,
who lectures on human rights at the
Ankara Police Academy. "Weare part of an
internationallegal system and must have
respect for global values."
Earlier this month, Turkey's multiparty
parliament amended key articles of the
criminal code whose purpose, civil-rights
,advocates have long argued, was to limit legitimate
freedom of expression. Approved
despite the fierce objections of conservative
legislators, the changes include reduction
of sentences for insulting branches, of
the Turkish state (including the courts ß,nd
the military). The changes also makeit
;:;,
,
By MARYANN
BIRD
FOR TURKEY, A COUNTRY THAT HAS
long prided itself on being a bridge
between East and West, the clash of
civilizations begins at home. Two
gatherings in Istanbullast week, held
about a kilometer apart, again brought into
sharp juxtaposition the external role that
Turkey craves and the internal realities of
a country struggling to improve the quality
of'iits'democracy. 'Both meetings, in their
own,way, emphasized the duality of a nation
that desperately wantsto be accepted
into Europe, yet finds itself rebuffed time
and again-in large measure because of its
notoriously poor human-rights record.
On the grounds of a former Ottoman
palace overlooking the Bosporus, member
nations of the European Union and the Organization
of the Islamic Conference met
in the first-ever o.I.c.-E.U. Joint Forum,
initiated by Turkey in the aftermath of
Sept. 11 "to promote understanding and
harmony among civilizations." Some 70
nations took part, including Iran and Iraq,
two points on Washington's "axis of evil."
As Turkish Ç>fficialsled their guests in discussing
tolerance, appreciation of cultur'al
diversity and the understanding of different
perceptions and values, the nearby
State Security Court was hearing the latest
freedom-of-expression cases onits docket.
There, in a trial that vied with the forum
for global attention, the 22-year-old
proprietor and editor of the Aram publishing
house, Fatih Tas, stood accused of disseminating
propaganda against the unity
of the Turkish state. The charge is often
leveled against those who question
Turkey's treatment of it" estimated 12 million
Kurds (among a total population of 65
million). Tas' "crime" was to publish material
critical of Turkey in American Interventionism,
a collection of essays by Noam
Chomsky, the renoWned American linguistics
professor and longtime thorn in the
side ofU.S. policymakers. Tas avoided conviction
and a year in prison, observers
agree, mainly because Chomsky had flown
into Istanbul to stand by his side, prompting
the prosecutor-In the glare of negative
publicity-to throw in the towel.
There's a growing belief that the Turkish
judiciary itself is now on trial. If the political
leadership, which has been flirting
with reform, avoids setting strict criteria
for positive change, many feel, judges will
be left to interpret the laws as they see fitand
not necessarily in ways that will help
EXPERT WITNESS U.S.'
foreign-policy critic Noam
Chomsky,above,pro~des
moral support for accused
publisher Fatih Tas,
foreground. The charges
against Tas were dismissed
DiSSENT STIFLED With
human rights a highly
charged issue in Turkey,
the authorities are quick to
break up any unauthorized
protest marches, left
more difficult to prosecute cases under article
312 of the penal code, under which it
is an offense to incite hatred based on class,
race, religion or region. That catchall
clause has been used to pursue anyone expressing
pro- Kurdish or politically Islamic
views. Excluded from the legal revisions,
however, are the implementation of such
highly sensitive steps as allowing Kurdishlanguage
broadcasting and abolishing the
death penalty for terrorism and treason.
Human-rights activists and others believe
the new legislation merely reflects
Turkish officials' attempts to conform to
KU. norms without changing the spirit of
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